The US House Speaker’s comments, made during a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, cheered Taiwanese hopes for firmer support from Washington, but were set to further raise tensions with China . “America has made a fundamental promise to always stand by Taiwan, and this visit is a reminder of that,” Pelosi said at the presidential office in Taipei on Wednesday. “Today, our delegation came to Taiwan to make it clear that we are not going to leave Taiwan.” Pelosi’s visit, part of a broader trip to Asia, comes at a time of escalating friction between Beijing and Washington and represents a test of how far China is prepared to go to prevent foreign expressions of support for Taipei. Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday for South Korea and is set to wrap up her tour in Japan on Saturday. Pelosi is the highest-ranking US official in a quarter-century to travel to Taiwan, which China claims. Beijing has denounced her trip as a violation of the US “One China” policy, under which Washington recognizes Beijing as the sole government of China and recognizes, but does not accept, its claim to Taiwan. As Pelosi landed in Taipei on Tuesday night, the People’s Liberation Army announced plans for extensive joint air and naval exercises and long-range live-fire exercises in six major areas around Taiwan, spanning territorial waters and airspace. country area near Kaohsiung and Keelung. , its largest and third largest port. The PLA plans to conduct the exercises from Thursday through Sunday after Pelosi leaves. An article in China’s PLA Daily newspaper said the visit sent the “wrong message” to Taiwanese “separatists” and that “any countermeasures taken by China are justified, reasonable and necessary.” Taiwan’s defense ministry warned that the drills “violate Taiwan’s territorial and contiguous waters and airspace and have threatened international shipping and air routes.” The exercises “are tantamount to an air and sea blockade of Taiwan,” said General Yu Chien-chang, a senior official in the ministry’s legal department. “They overlap with our territorial waters and airspace and seriously violate our sovereignty.” In her remarks at the presidential office, Pelosi was referring to the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to help Taiwan defend itself even after the US switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979. The Taiwan Relations Act does not include a clear US commitment to military intervention against a Chinese attack. Washington has long maintained a stance of “strategic ambiguity” about whether it would do so. However, some argue that US President Joe Biden has eroded that stance with remarks that the US would come to Taiwan’s aid in such a scenario. “We are supporters of the status quo, we don’t want anything to happen to Taiwan by force,” Pelosi said. Commenting that China had not “made a big fuss” when other members of Congress visited Taiwan, he added: “I hope it’s really clear that while China has stood in the way of Taiwan’s participation and transition in some meetings, they understand that they will not stand in the way of people coming to Taiwan.” Taiwan’s government said it was studying whether air and sea routes had to be adjusted due to the PLA exercises to ensure security. There were no announcements of flight or cargo ship cancellations. Tsai praised Pelosi’s visit “under such difficult circumstances as a show of unwavering support for Taiwan” and said it boosted public confidence in the strength of the country’s democracy.

Before meeting with Tsai on Wednesday morning, Pelosi held talks with Taiwanese lawmakers, including Tsai Chi-chang, the legislature’s vice speaker. Pelosi said she wanted to strengthen cross-parliamentary cooperation and work with Taiwan to help implement the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which US officials say is designed to counter China. “Now more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is vital,” Pelosi told the president’s office. “Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy. America’s resolve to preserve democracy in Taiwan remains ironclad.” Wang Ting-yu, a member of the legislature’s foreign affairs and defense committee from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, said Pelosi’s decision to stay in Taiwan overnight and hold a full day of public meetings reflected “a level between friends and allies”. Russia echoed China’s condemnation of the trip, in apparent reciprocity for Beijing’s tacit approval of the war in Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Pelosi’s trip showed the US’s “determination to show everyone how they can get away with everything and do whatever they want,” according to Interfax. “I don’t see any other reason to create an irritant like this basically out of thin air, knowing full well what it means for China,” he added. North Korea also denounced Pelosi’s visit. “The current situation clearly shows the brazen interference of the US,” Pyongyang’s foreign ministry was quoted as saying by North Korean state media. Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Christian Davies in Seoul Video: Will China and the US go to war over Taiwan?