Nancy Pelosi Taiwan visit

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on August 2, 2022 as part of a tour of Asia. She also visited Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. The White House did not officially support the visit.

Pelosi said that her visit was a sign that the United States will support Taiwan. She also visited the Legislative Yuan and met with President Tsai Ing-wen.

## Background

Before her visit, it was not known if Pelosi would visit Taiwan. White House National Security representative John Kirby said that China could respond with a missile attack near Taiwan or other military actions to show they did not approve of Pelosi's visit.

Pelosi compared China's possible actions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in her article for _The Washington Post_ on August 2. She also compared Chinese officials to Russian officials by calling them autocrats.

## Visit

Pelosi arrived in Taipei, Taiwan late on August 2 by a military aircraft. She met with President Tsai Ing-wen on August 3. She was awarded a medal of honour at the Presidential Office Building.

In a press release issued during the trip, Pelosi declared that the visit "in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo". White House Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby said at a press conference held during the visit "The Speaker’s visit is totally consistent with our longstanding One China policy. We’ve been very clear that nothing has changed about our One China policy, which is guided, of course, by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint U.S.-PRC Communiqués, and the Six Assurances.

## Response

The People's Republic of China (PRC) did not like the visit. In a telephone speech between President of the United States Joe Biden and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping the week before, the PRC government warned about a visit like this. Chinese officials said that this visit would not make the relationship between the United States and China good.

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said that twenty-one Chinese Air Force planes flew into its airspace on August 2.

On the night Pelosi landed in Taipei, the PLA Eastern Theater Command increased its naval and air force activity near Taiwan. It had missile test firings in waters east of Taiwan.  China announced that they will have more military drills in areas around Taiwan from August 4 to August 7.

The U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was asked to meet with the Chinese Foreign Ministry to talk about how China did not approve of the visit.

Several countries reacted to the visit. New Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said "We don’t want to see any unilateral change to the status quo." New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said "Dialogue and diplomacy is what we need in these tense times." A spokesperson for the European Union emphasized the bloc's "clear One China Policy."

## Related pages

- Chinese Civil War
- Cross-Strait relations
- Political status of Taiwan
- List of Chinese dissidents