News and Views on Tibet

China sanctions US Speaker Pelosi after Taiwan visit

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday (Photo/Getty Images)

By Choekyi Lhamo

DHARAMSHALA, Aug 6: In retaliation to the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, Chinese state mouthpiece Global Times on Friday said that the Chinese government has announced eight countermeasures for the “highly provocative visit to the island of Taiwan”.

“In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement. The statement however, did not specify the nature of the sanctions.

Beijing announced the unspecified sanctions on Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family members due to her visit to the island nation. The sanctions will reportedly halt cooperation with the US on eight specific measures, including climate change, military, anti-drug work, talks on cross-border crime prevention and on sending back undocumented migrants.

“We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo in Taiwan or the region. The Chinese government is not pleased that our friendship with Taiwan is a strong one,” Speaker Pelosi told a news conference during the visit. “It is bipartisan in the House and in the Senate, overwhelming support for peace and the status quo in Taiwan,” she further added.

During her visit, she met with rights activists, former political prisoners and members from the Uyghur and Tibetan communities. During the symbolic meeting at the National Human Rights Museum, Pelosi contrasted the dark era of Taiwanese history and the democratic island’s willingness to address its past with the Chinese Communist Party’s suppression of such narratives. “Our delegation visited the National Human Rights Museum with ex-political prisoners: a tribute to the heroes who suffered and fought for Taiwan’s democracy,” Pelosi tweeted.

The rights forum also included the Dalai Lama’s representative in Taiwan, Kelsang Gyaltsen, and Director of the Taiwan Coalition for Human Rights in China, Yang Xianhong. Representative Gyaltsen told RFA that he informed Pelosi about the worsening human rights situation in Tibet and how CCP’s totalitarian dictatorship is getting more extreme.

The Taiwanese Defence Ministry also said that China on Friday sent military ships and fighter jets across the Taiwan Strait, crossing an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan, which hadn’t been violated for decades.

2 Responses

  1. The US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a woman of prodigious calibre, gallantry and conviction of freedom and democracy. Her hero from childhood has been the late US President John F Kennedy. She attended his inaugural address when he was sworn in as the president of the US in January 1961 and was inspired by him ever since.
    She is a fierce opponent of totalitarian Governments who abuse human rights and trample on the rights of the people. To the good fortune of Tibet, she has been a staunch supporter of the Tibetan people and a great friend of the Dalai Lama. She is also a friend of the Chinese people. After the brutal crackdown in which some ten thousand Chinese students were murdered on the night of June 4th 1989, Nancy Pelosi unfurled a banner at Tiananmen Square in 1991, to pay tribute to the pro-democracy students who were ruthlessly murdered in cold blood. She was censured and the journalists covering her daring act were arrested by the killer regime. She has never backed off from her conviction of fighting and standing up to anti-people regimes such as the CCP.
    Her recent visit to Taiwan is the same defiance she exhibited in Tiananmen square 31 years ago. People see her as an angel of democracy, human rights and individual freedom. Being convinced of her strong belief in democracy and freedom, her motivation was to show solidarity with the Taiwanese people and it’s leadership in the face of constant bullying by communist China. Freedom and human dignity is anathema to the CCP killer regime and they were incensed by her audacity to visit Taiwan!
    There was lot of hissing and gnashing of teeth by the Chinese communist regime in Beijing which conducted military manoeuvres off the cost of Taiwan by firing missiles and simulated an invasion plan by blockading the island nation. All the hue and cry the CCP raised received nothing except condemnation and derision from the international community.
    The CCP had initially planned to buy off Taiwan through mouth watering economic incentives. It included buying off businesspeople by giving preferential treatment for their investments in China. Thousands of school children were invited to China in order to win their hearts to the communist cause. However, they brought no significant dividends. Next, they tried disinformation as a weapon in order to alienate the Taiwanese from their leadership and create distrust of the Taiwan Government. It’s an on-going process but the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) took drastic action to counter the infiltration of disinformation in the country.
    The military invasion is the last resort because if they invade Taiwan, it will not only draw the US but Japan and other US allies like Australia and even South Korea. Besides there is the AUKUS (Australia, UK and US) military alliance specifically formed to deter communist China. Then there is the QUAD comprising Australia, Japan, US and India which is another military alliance to counter communist China in the Indo-Pacific region. Besides, if the CCP invades Taiwan, it may not go down well when the Chinese population witnesses the killing of Taiwanese civilians. The Chinese see the Taiwanese as Chinese in their eyes and they have ethnic affinity towards the Taiwanese. When the missiles start flying and killing people in Taiwan that might trigger uncomfortable ethnic sympathy that would reignite resentment against the CCP among Chinese netizens. That’s why, the CCP is careful not to be reckless in throwing its weight around. Besides, the US army is a battle hardened fighting machine with conflict experience for two decades in Afghanistan and Iraq while the PLA is often described as a tofu army of princelings from the era of the one child policy!
    With the Chinese economy chugging along like an old rusty train and Xi’s third term in the offing in September, a full fledged war is unlikely. The CCP is only breathing fake fire through its nostrils for the domestic population where the dictator for life can’t afford to be seen to be weak. The CCP has aroused nationalism as the unifying force but it’s double edged sword. Now, the Chinese nationalists are disappointed that Nancy Pelosi’s plane was not shot down as claimed by Hu, the ex-editor of the Global Times had promised in frenzy of twits that he had fired to deter Nancy Pelosi from visiting Taiwan.
    Meanwhile, thanks to the indomitable Nancy Pelosi’s courage and foresight, Taiwan has a diplomatic victory in its bag! It is a sovereign nation who has diplomatic recognition by the third highest official of the most mighty nation on earth – The United States of America!

  2. And this effects Pelosi how? She doesn’t have any need to visit China. And at 81 she is probably quite ready to retire.

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