A top Chinese government propagandist has warned that China’s military could attack the plane carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if it is accompanied by US fighter jets on a much-anticipated stop in Taiwan on her upcoming visit to Asia. Pelosi left Friday for a tour that could include a controversial stop in Taiwan, the self-governing island republic at the center of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington. In a now-banned tweet, Hu Xijin, a columnist for China’s state-run Global Times, wrote: “If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane to Taiwan, it is [an] invasion. The [People’s Liberation Army] has the right to forcefully disperse Pelosi’s plane and US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and conducting tactical interdiction.” “If they’re ineffective, then tear them down,” Hu added, according to the New York Post. The Guardian called Hu “China’s troll king” and its “most famous propagandist” in a 2021 profile. Hu was previously editor and party secretary of the Global Times, where he “helped set a striking new tone for China on the world stage,” The Guardian reported. Pelosi’s aides have not yet confirmed whether the President’s trip will include a visit to Taiwan. Responding to growing anger in China over the possibility of Pelosi setting foot in Taiwan, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “There is no reason for it to come to this, to come to blows, to come to heightened physical tension .There is no reason why American policy has not changed in relation to One China,” the AP reports. Tensions between China and Taiwan have been high for decades, with China claiming the island as its territory. By contrast, Taiwan, an island republic of 23 million that broke away from Communist China in 1947, sees itself as an independent state. The possibility of a visit to the island by Pelosi has sparked heated rhetoric and warnings from Beijing. Reports say the Pentagon plans to call on US warplanes and ships to provide additional security near Taiwan if a visit takes place. Top military experts on China have warned that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi could raise the risk of an “accident” that could spark a military crisis in the region. “There is a risk of an accident, not a risk of an imminent Chinese attack on Taiwan,” Bonnie Glaser, a leading China expert and director of the Asia program at the United States’ German Marshall Fund, told Insider. If she visits the island, about 100 miles off China’s southeast coast, Pelosi would become the highest-ranking US lawmaker in more than two decades to visit Taiwan.
