China announced sanctions against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family on Friday following her diplomatic visit to Taiwan earlier this week.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson called Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan an “egregious provocation” and a “gross interference” into the country’s internal affairs.
“In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs,” the spokesperson said. “It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
“In response to Pelosi’s egregious provocation, China decides to adopt sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members in accordance with relevant laws of the People’s Republic of China,” they added.
This comes after Pelosi visited Taiwan and offered assurances of support for the island nation’s democracy, which roused the ire of China and prompted the communist country to schedule live-fire military drills this week.
“Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” she said during a meeting with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.”
After leaving Taiwan, the House Speaker landed in Japan on Thursday, where she clarified her visit to the region was not intended to disrupt the “status quo.”
“Our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in Asia, changing the status quo of Taiwan. It’s about again the Taiwan relations and the U.S.-China policy, all of the pieces of legislation and agreements that have established what our relationship is, to have peace in the Taiwan Straits and to have the status quo prevail,” she said during a news conference.
China has amplified warnings to the U.S., with the former threatening the use of military response leading to Pelosi’s visit.
“Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the U.S. will be clear-eyed about this,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Joe Biden during a phone call last week.
While the Chinese Community Party has long insisted that Taiwan is a part of its territory, the U.S. has maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity — acknowledging Beijing’s claim but never endorsing it.
