A Chinese state media figure warned that the presence of U.S. fighter jets accompanying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s transport to Taiwan would be considered an “invasion.”
Hu Xijin, a commentator for China’s Global Times, warned on Friday that “if US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is [an] invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.”
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Hu’s comments continue a recent trend of increasingly strong language from various Chinese officials over the possibility of Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. The speaker is leaving on an Asia trip on Friday, and it remains unclear if she will make a stop in Taiwan, the island nation of 24 million that still is disputed land between its government and mainland China.
The Biden administration and Department of Defense officials have repeatedly said the decision was up to Pelosi, but President Joe Biden did say last week that the military was concerned about it.
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Associated Press last week that conversations about specific travel arrangements are premature, though he explained, “If there’s a decision made that Speaker Pelosi or anyone else is going to travel and they asked for military support, we will do what is necessary to ensure a safe conduct of their visit. And I’ll just leave it at that.”
Earlier this week, a Chinese official warned that they would “take strong and resolute measures” against attempts of “interference.”
“The U.S. … must not arrange for Pelosi to visit the Taiwan region,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Col. Tan Kefei said Tuesday. “Should the U.S. side insist on doing otherwise, the Chinese military will never sit idl[y] by and will certainly take strong and resolute measures to thwart any interference by external forces and secessionist attempts for ‘Taiwan independence’ and firmly defend China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
John Kirby, the White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, called the comments “unnecessary and uncalled for,” adding, “And there’s no trip to speak to, and rhetoric of that kind only escalates tensions. … So, we find that unhelpful and certainly not in the least necessary, given the situation.”
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The Chinese reaction to the possible Pelosi visit is one example of its overall more aggressive tendencies toward the United States, officials have said, and this has also been visible in China’s military action both in water and the skies.
Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, reiterated that sentiment earlier this week at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, saying that “in recent months,” the U.S. has “witnessed a sharp increase in unsafe and unprofessional behaviors by [Chinese] ships and aircraft.”
