Chinese fighter jets launched: US leader Pelosi arrived in Taiwan

Despite Chinese threats, US House Speaker Pelosi is traveling to Taiwan.

Chinese fighter jets launched: US leader Pelosi arrived in Taiwan

Despite Chinese threats, US House Speaker Pelosi is traveling to Taiwan. China announces countermeasures and flexes its military muscles. The first fighter jets are already flying across the Taiwan Strait.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has arrived in Taiwan for a visit. Their plane landed in the capital, Taipei. The top politician ignored warnings from China, which sees the democratic island as part of the People's Republic. In a statement released immediately afterwards, Pelosi stressed the "unconditional US support for Taiwan's vibrant democracy."

Tensions with China notwithstanding, the visit to Taiwan is widely welcomed. The stay is considered an appreciation of the democratic island republic. In Taipei, it was also seen as a setback for Beijing, which is trying to isolate Taiwan internationally. Cross-party Taiwanese parliamentarians welcomed the 82-year-old. Kuomintang MP Chen Yi-hsin said he hoped Beijing would not "overreact". Pelosi represents Congress and the people of the United States, but not US President Joe Biden, he told the CNA news agency. Her visit does not represent a change in the US's "one China policy," which recognizes Beijing as China's only legitimate government.

Ruling Progressive Party (DPP) MP Wang Tingyu expects Beijing to take some "disruptive actions". However, he does not expect a reaction that could trigger a conflict with the USA. The Secretary-General of the Taiwan Human Rights Association, Shih Yi-hsiang, sees the visit as a "signal that we should deepen democracy and human rights and oppose the authoritarianism of the Chinese Communist Party".

Shortly before US top politician Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Chinese warplanes flew over the Taiwan Strait, according to Chinese state television. It is therefore a type SU-35 machine, as reported by the broadcaster CCTV. How many there were and what their destination was not disclosed.

Pelosi's visit to the island's democratic republic had already increased tensions around Taiwan. China regards Taiwan as part of the People's Republic, has threatened countermeasures and also held out the prospect of military action.

Taiwan's diplomatic representative in Germany, Jhy-Wey Shieh, saw China's recent military movements as "more than just a threatening gesture," he told ntv. The country will also be defended to the last man. Taiwan is the final piece of the puzzle for China. "The Chinese have Macau back, Hong Kong back, they have the Uyghurs and Tibet firmly in their hands."

The Taiwanese ambassador also addressed a demand to the West: "We expect not only from the USA, but also from Germany and the EU that democracies stand together and stick together." "If necessary," this could also mean the delivery of weapons and the participation of soldiers, Shieh said, adding: "If you want to keep the peace, you have to be prepared to wage a defensive war."

From the point of view of the Chinese leadership, Taiwan is part of the People's Republic, although it was already governed independently before it was founded in 1949. The island, which has a population of 23 million, has long considered itself independent. China's president sees achieving "unification" as his "historic" mission and threatens conquest. The claim to power on the island goes back to the founding history of the People's Republic, which explains its great importance for the Communist Party.

At the end of the civil war against the communists, the national Chinese Kuomintang government fled with its troops to Taiwan, while the communists proclaimed the People's Republic in 1949. The island is of geostrategic importance due to its location on economically important straits, and US generals used to like to describe it as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier".