(by Andrea Pinto) The rhetoric tells that Nancy Pelosi the third American institutional office, in full autonomy, has decided to make a tour in Asian countries together with other legislators belonging to Democrats. Yesterday Singapore and Malaysia, today South Korea and Japan and then make a very short trip to Taiwan to meet the president Tsai Ing-wen.
Republican senators did not accept Pelosi's invitation to join the journey of discord never welcomed, even verbally by the president Joe Biden who was forced to call his counterpart Xi Jinping hoping to calm the growing tensions, hearing instead the answer: "Whoever plays with fire ends up getting burned ”. Strange that the American speaker could have all this autonomy by coming into conflict with Democratic President Biden and with the foreign policy of the State Department. Pelosi's tour seems more like a showdown against Beijing in an area where the United States has long turned its attention to trying to mitigate Chinese expansionism in the region and the aims of the island.
Beijing thundered with the foreign minister's spokesman Zhao Lijiang: “We will take decisive and strong countermeasures in defense of our sovereignty and territorial integrity. The United States should abide by the One China principle and deliver on President Biden's promise not to support Taiwan's independence".
The Pentagon is on high alert, all Chinese military operations in the region are being monitored. The Taipei Defense Ministry announced yesterday that four J-16 fighters entered the island's airspace yesterday.
Beijing has announced massive military exercises (today and tomorrow) off the coast of the southeastern province of Fujian, overlooking the Taiwan Strait and others in the South China and Yellow Seas, areas to which it will deny transit starting at midnight local tonight until 7 August next.
The Eastern Command of the Chinese Army has published a 2-minute video dedicated to the large-scale maneuvers launched off the Taiwanese coast, the same area where the American aircraft carrier has also been positioned in these hours USS Ronald Reagan.
In a note released on the WeChat platform they also said of be ready to obey the order to fight, bury all incoming enemies and advance to a new victory.
The Stars and Stripes Administration appears covertly calm and from the words of the spokesperson of the National Security Council, John Kirby send a message to Beijing: "We are not intimidated by the useless Chinese rhetoric. The Speaker's journey is important and we support it. There are no changes in our policy. We work to keep an Indo-Pacific free, safe and open. China does not use this trip as a pretext: military provocations are dangerous because they can lead to a miscalculation and consequently to an escalation ”.