TAIPEI (Reuters) – Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after a short visit during which she showed U.S. support and solidarity for Taiwanese democracy, arousing the ire of China.
Nancy Pelosi’s plane, which arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, took off from an airport in the capital Taipei on Wednesday around 6 p.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT).
This visit, the first on the island of a US official of such a high rank for 25 years, was denounced by China, which notably ordered maritime and air military exercises around Taiwan as well as missile tests. conventional vessels at sea to the east of the island.
While Beijing, which considers the island as a renegade province, does not rule out using force to bring it back into Chinese hands, the United States had warned China against the possibility of using this visit as a pretext for launch a military operation against Taiwan.
Washington has no official diplomatic relations with Taipei but, by law, is obliged to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
In addition to these military maneuvers, the Chinese authorities have also decreed new trade sanctions against Taiwan, with a suspension of imports of citrus fruits and certain fish from Taiwan, and a ban on exports of natural sand to the island.
This renewed tension in the region has led the European Union (EU), which supports Beijing’s “one China” doctrine while claiming “a friendly relationship and close cooperation with Taiwan”, to call for dialogue.
“We encourage a peaceful resolution of issues around the Taiwan Strait. Tensions should be eased through dialogue and appropriate communication channels should be maintained to reduce the risk of misunderstandings,” a spokesman for the Twenty-Seven said on Wednesday. .
In Moscow, the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, judged that one should not “underestimate” the tensions triggered by the visit of the elected American to Taiwan, qualified as “provocation”.
Nancy Pelosi, who traveled to Singapore and Malaysia before her Taiwanese leg, will continue her tour in Asia, with trips planned to South Korea and Japan.
(With contributions from John Chalmers in Brussels; French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Nicolas Delame)