COVID-Hit Pelosi Should Cancel Taiwan Trip Instead of Postponing It, Beijing Says
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US Speaker for the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi should cancel her visit to Taipei instead of rescheduling it, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
"China has recently made its position clear on Speaker Pelosi's planned visit to Taiwan and Chinese officials have also lodged solemn representations with the US side," Zhao said at a briefing.
He expressed sympathy to Pelosi and wished her speedy recovery, adding that he thought "what she should do is not postpone the visit, but cancel it immediately."
On Thursday, media reported that the US delegation led by Pelosi intends to visit Japan on Sunday, and then head to Taiwan. However, on Thursday, Speaker's Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill announced that Pelosi contracted COVID-19, therefore the delegation to Asia will be postponed.
After reports of Pelosi's planned visit to Taipei, Beijing strongly denounced all possible official interactions between Taiwan and the United States, saying such actions infringe on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Official relations between Beijing and Taipei broke down in 1949 after the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the two sides maintain contacts through nongovernmental organisations, including the Beijing Association for the Advancement of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation.
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