Comment TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s military stepped up combat readiness Tuesday and braced for a show of force from China as the island prepared to host House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for a visit that drew dire warnings from the Chinese leadership. escalated tensions between Beijing and Washington. Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported that the island’s military forces stepped up preparations on Tuesday morning and said they would remain on a “heightened” state of readiness until noon Thursday. Pelosi is expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday evening local time, according to a person familiar with the arrangements for the visit. Taiwanese media reported that Pelosi was expected to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen and lawmakers on Wednesday. The White House warns China against overreacting to Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan Pelosi’s impending visit has angered China, which has for years sought to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and views such exchanges with high-level foreign officials as support for the island’s formal independence. The ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory even though it has never ruled there. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to “reunify” Taiwan with China by force if necessary. On Tuesday, Chinese naval authorities announced additional military exercises in the South China Sea and live-fire drills in the Bohai Sea, near the Korean Peninsula, this week. Reuters reported, citing an unnamed source, that Chinese fighter jets flew on Tuesday near the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, the unofficial military boundary. Chinese carrier Xiamen Airlines, meanwhile, announced the grounding of 30 flights on Tuesday as a result of air traffic controls in Fujian, the Chinese province just across the strait from Taiwan. Earlier, the White House warned that China could launch missiles into or near the Taiwan Strait or send military aircraft to the middle line. The situation poses a test for Xi, who faces a balancing act of responding forcefully but in a way that does not spark an all-out conflict as he prepares for a crucial leadership meeting in the fall. “Xi must show determination. It must support Chinese red lines and prevent a further shift toward an unacceptable outcome: US support for Taiwan independence,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund. Pelosi began her Asia trip on Sunday and did not include Taiwan on her official itinerary. Beijing has repeatedly warned it will respond to what it sees as interference in an internal matter. “The Chinese side is fully prepared for any eventuality and the People’s Liberation Army of China will never stand idly by,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said Monday at a news conference. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” he said. The administration fears that a Pelosi trip to Taiwan could spark a cross-strait crisis China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun, speaking at a press conference on Monday, called the visit “dangerous and provocative”. Joanne Ou, a spokeswoman for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a briefing on Tuesday that the ministry had no information about Pelosi’s visit, but that the Speaker of the House would be welcome. “Our government always welcomes international friends to visit Taiwan, enhance their understanding of Taiwan and show their support,” he said. Regardless of heightened tensions over Pelosi’s expected visit, residents say Taiwan has benefited from the attention. “Taiwan will be the biggest winner. When did Taiwan become the focus of US politics and midterm elections?’ said Fan Shih-ping, a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Political Science. “The Taiwan issue has been fully internationalized, which is the last thing China and Xi Jinping want to see.” Pelosi has long been a critic of China’s human rights record and has sided with protesters in Hong Kong protesting Beijing’s crackdown on the city. Reuters reported that Pelosi will meet with a group of human rights activists in Taiwan. “He knows what had happened in Hong Kong and he knows that many Hong Kong protesters who are leaving the Communist Party will come to Taiwan,” said Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller who was detained in China and is now. who lives in Taipei. Lam said he was invited to attend an event Wednesday with the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, but was not told whether Pelosi would attend. “This would be a sign of support for the Hong Kong people’s resistance,” he said of the speaker’s upcoming visit. Vic Chiang and Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.
