China Sanctions US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, Family Over Taiwan Visit

The U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family have been sanctioned by China in response to her ‘vicious’ and ‘provocative’ actions.

The Chinese foreign ministry made this known on Friday, according to Daily Mail.

“Despite China’s serious concerns and firm opposition, Pelosi insisted on visiting Taiwan, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, trampling on the one-China policy, and threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

However, Nancy Pelosi on Friday vowed that China would not succeed in isolating Taiwan, as Beijing imposed punitive sanctions on her over a visit to Taiwan and continued military exercises that have sent fears of conflict in the region skyrocketing.

She spoke Friday in Tokyo as she wrapped up her Asia tour.

Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan this week brought to the fore the rising tensions between Washington and Beijing and the impact of the souring relations on U.S. allies that are economically dependent on China.

The Chinese have tried to isolate Taiwan, Pelosi said, including most recently by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization.

“They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” she said, defending her trip that some say has escalated tension in the region.

Pelosi called the contention “ridiculous” and said that her trip to Taiwan was not intended to change the status quo for the island but to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait.

She praised Taiwan’s hard-fought democracy, including its progress in diversity including LGBTQ rights, and success in technology and business, while criticising China’s violations of trade agreements, proliferation of weapons and human rights problems.

“If we do not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out about human rights any place in the world,” Pelosi said.

“China has some contradictions — some progress in terms of lifting people up, some horrible things happening in terms of the Uyghurs. In fact, it’s been labeled a genocide.”

It comes as Taiwan condemned its ‘evil neighbour’ China as huge military drills once-again encircled the self-governing island – drawing harsh criticism from its allies.

Taipei said multiple Chinese warships and fighters today crossed the ‘median line’ that runs down the centre of the Taiwan Strait, separating it from the mainland.

The line is an unofficial but previously widely-recognised border that Beijing insists ‘no longer exists’, as it tries to exert control over its much smaller neighbour.

It comes after a day in which China fired barrages of missiles at Taiwan – some of which flew over the island for the first time – as it holds massive war games that state media says are a rehearsal for an invasion.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, criticised those missile launches – some of which landed in Japanese waters – calling them a ‘significant escalation’.

Beijing began the military drills late Tuesday as Nancy Pelosi, US House Speaker, visited the island and says they will continue until midday Sunday.

Taipei reported that Chinese fighter jets and ships crossed the ‘median line’ that runs down the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning.

‘As of 11am, multiple batches of Chinese warplanes and warships conducted exercises around the Taiwan Strait and crossed the median line of the strait,’ Taipei’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Chinese incursions have become more common since Beijing declared in 2020 that the unofficial border no longer existed.

AFP journalists on the picturesque Chinese island of Pingtan saw a fighter jet flying overhead, prompting tourists to snap photos as it flew along the coast.

A Chinese military vessel was also visible sailing through the Taiwan Strait, they added.

Beijing has insisted its war games are a ‘necessary’ response to a visit to the self-ruled, democratic island by Ms Pelosi, but Washington countered that China’s leaders had ‘chosen to overreact’.

They point out that a similar visit by male senators just weeks before had passed off without a response.