He made the remarks in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taiwan that angered China. The Chinese have tried to isolate Taiwan, Pelosi said, including the latter by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization. “They may try to prevent Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us from traveling there,” he said. Pelosi said her trip to Taiwan was not intended to change the status quo for the island but to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait. He also praised Taiwan’s hard-fought democracy, including its progress in diversity and success in technology and business, and criticized China’s violations of trade agreements, arms proliferation and human rights problems. Pelosi, the first House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the US commitment to democracy on the island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” Pelosi and five other members of Congress arrived in Tokyo late Thursday after visiting Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. In Taipei on Wednesday, Pelosi said the American commitment to democracy in Taiwan and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” She became the first speaker of Parliament to visit the island in 25 years. China, which claims Taiwan and has threatened to annex it by force if necessary, called her visit to the island a provocation and on Thursday began military exercises, including missile-launch training, in six zones surrounding Taiwan , at its largest since perhaps the mid-1990s. Pelosi said China had launched the “attacks possibly using our visit as an excuse.” Earlier on Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said China’s military exercises targeting Taiwan represented a “serious problem” threatening regional peace and security after five ballistic missiles were fired as part of the exercises that landed in its exclusive economic zone. Japan. Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the missile launches must “stop immediately.” Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said five missiles landed Thursday in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands. He said Japan had protested to China, saying the missiles “threatened Japan’s national security and the lives of the Japanese people, which we strongly condemn.” The defense ministry later said it believed the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeast coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, attending a regional meeting in Cambodia, said China’s actions “seriously affect peace and stability in the region and the international community, and we demand the immediate suspension of military exercises.” Japan has in recent years boosted its defense capability and troop presence in southwestern Japan and on outlying islands, including Okinawa, which lies about 700 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of Taiwan. Many residents say they worry their island will quickly become embroiled in any conflict with Taiwan. Okinawa hosts the majority of the roughly 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. At the breakfast earlier Friday, Pelosi and her congressional delegation also discussed their shared security concerns regarding China, North Korea and Russia and pledged to work for peace and stability in Taiwan, Kishida said. . Pelosi was also scheduled to hold talks with her Japanese counterpart, Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda. Japan and its key ally the US are pushing for new security and economic frameworks with other democracies in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe as a counter to China’s growing influence amid rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei. Days before Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, a group of senior Japanese lawmakers, including former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, visited the island and discussed regional security with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen. Ishiba said Japan, while working with the United States to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific, wants a defense deal with Taiwan. On Thursday, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations issued a statement saying “there is no justification for using a visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait.” It said China’s “escalating response risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region.” China cited its displeasure at the announcement of the cancellation of last-minute talks between the foreign ministers of China and Japan on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia on Thursday. Pelosi held talks Thursday in South Korea, also a key US ally, which has stayed away from the Taiwan issue, apparently to avoid upsetting China, focusing instead on North Korea’s growing nuclear threat. In recent years, South Korea has struggled to find a balance between the United States and China as their rivalry deepens. The Chinese military exercises that began on Thursday involve the navy, air force and other departments and will last until Sunday. They include missile attacks on targets in seas north and south of the island in the wake of the last major Chinese military exercises in 1995 and 1996 aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters. Taiwan has put its military on alert and organized civil defense exercises, while the US has numerous naval bases in the region. China also flew warplanes into Taiwan and blocked imports of its citrus fruits and fish. China views the island as a breakaway province and considers visits by foreign officials to Taiwan recognition of its sovereignty. The Biden administration and Pelosi have said the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing as China’s government but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. The administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from visiting. Pelosi has long been an advocate for human rights in China. She, along with other lawmakers, visited Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1991 to support democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters in the square. As leader of the House of Representatives, Pelosi’s trip has raised US-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress. The last speaker of the House to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997. China and Taiwan, separated in 1949 after a civil war, have no official relations but multibillion-dollar business ties.
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea and Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.
