House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has just landed in Taipei, Taiwan. Her trip had not been formally announced likely for national security purposes, although it was the biggest unkept secret since it was leaked that it would happen a couple of weeks ago.
#WATCH | US aircraft carrying House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi lands in Taipei, Taiwan.
(Source: Reuters) pic.twitter.com/pOpl9NHaio
— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2022
WATCH LIVE NOW: @SpeakerPelosi lands in Taiwan despite threats from China. https://t.co/zw5zI1zS6v
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 2, 2022
As she landed, officials in Taiwan were investigating a bomb threat against the country’s major international airport after receiving an unsigned email threatened to “stop the U.S. House speaker’s visit.”
The threat said that three explosive devices would be placed around the airport to “stop the Speaker’s visit to Taiwan.”
Except there was a small problem — Pelosi wasn’t arriving at that airport but another one with a Congressional delegation.
The unsigned note was addressed to the airport’s customer services at around 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to Taiwan’s Apple Daily. The newspaper was among several to report that Pelosi’s congressional delegation (CODEL)—thought to be airborne after departing Malaysia—would land at Taipei’s Songshan Airport at around 10 p.m.
The contents and metadata of the letter were handed over to investigators, who will attempt to trace the source of the threat, the police said.
It’s not clear if this is China once again trying to stir the pot against her visit to Taiwan, but that would stand to reason.
Congressional members have often visited the island, so this reaction from China seems to be trying to jack up the tension, perhaps to justify an action against the island.
Unfortunately, the Biden team hasn’t called China out for its threats. Both Coordinator for Strategic Communications to the National Security Council John Kirby and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre failed to do so when grilled by reporters on the threats. They also wouldn’t explain why Joe Biden had said that the military didn’t want Pelosi to go.
Pelosi has been supported by both members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Per Newsweek:
According to Taiwanese publications, Pelosi’s itinerary will include an in-person meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan and a visit to the island’s legislature—both on Wednesday.
At the White House rostrum, Kirby predicted China’s live-fire exercises were a potential prelude to escalation that could include the firing of missiles “in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday: “Faced with the U.S.’s reckless disregard for China’s repeated and serious representations, any countermeasures taken by the Chinese side will be justified and necessary, which is also the right of any independent and sovereign country.”
Pelosi released a statement.
Pelosi’s first statement about her arrival in Taiwan pic.twitter.com/L0by9vtFv4
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2022
So we’ll have to see if China wrote checks that they’re not willing to cash with all the bluster.