However, he only retracted the tweet after Twitter suspended his account. Pelosi, third in line for the presidential succession behind President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, began a trip to Asia on Saturday morning, with official stops planned in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. It is widely speculated that it will also stop in Taiwan, which Communist China maintains is a breakaway province, not an independent country, and has no right to maintain foreign relations. The two split in 1949 after a civil war saw the Communist Party take control of mainland China. Pelosi declined to confirm reports that she would visit the self-governing island. If the visit goes ahead, it would be the highest-ranking American elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997. While deleting the tweet about Pelosi’s firing, Hu Xijin continued to tweet comments about the trip. Hu Xijin deleted a tweet warning of military retaliation if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan. Gilles Sabrie/Bloomberg “If Pelosi does indeed visit Taiwan as planned, Tsai Ing-wen [Taiwanese] the authorities are complicit,” he posted on Saturday. “The mainland will definitely take severe punishments to Taiwan at the same time. The unbearable consequences will fall on the Tsai authorities.” The Chinese military, meanwhile, held live-fire drills on Saturday off the coast opposite Taiwan as the speaker flew east. The People’s Liberation Army conducted the exercises near the Pingtan Islands off Fujian province, the official Xinhua news agency said. The announcement of a proposal gave no indication whether the drills would involve missiles, fighter jets or other weapons. In a phone call Thursday, President Xi Jinping warned President Joe Biden against “external interference” in Beijing’s dealings with the island.
