Many Taiwanese have shrugged off China’s warnings of repercussions from a possible trip to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying they are accustomed to Beijing’s saber rattling and saw no cause for alarm.
Such a trip would be the first by a US House speaker since 1997.
While news of a possible visit has been widely reported in Taiwan, front-page stories in the past week have focused on political campaigns ahead of local elections this year, as well as record-breaking temperatures.
Photo: AFP
Waiting for a doctor’s appointment on a busy street in Taipei, Chen Yen-chen gave voice to a widely held view about China’s remarks.
“That is mostly verbal threats and intimidation, so this time around I am quite at ease,” said the 30-year-old, who works in education.
Visits by US officials to Taiwan have become a frequent source of tension between Beijing and Washington.
Despite fears that a visit could trigger a fourth crisis over the Taiwan Strait since 1949, politicians and diplomats in Taiwan have said that people are used to military intimidation by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“To the Taiwanese people, Chinese threats have never stopped in the past decades. It’s happening every day,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. “Taiwan needs to be on guard, but Taiwan will not cave in to fear.”
A visit by Pelosi would be welcomed, said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Department of International Affairs director Alexander Huang (黃介正), who is also the party’s representative in the US.
“Of course it raises Taiwan’s visibility and it shows the American commitment to Taiwan in a pretty formal way,” Huang said, describing the impact such a visit would have.
Beijing’s threats of unspecified “serious consequences” are merely the same old warnings for 26-year-old office assistant Hung Chien, who said: “I am already used to China issuing such statements, so I am not overly nervous.”
Military threats have only made Taiwan more determined to stand up to Beijing, some analysts said.
For example, during the Third Taiwan Strait crisis in 1995 and 1996, the PLA fired missiles into the waters near Taiwan ahead of its first direct presidential vote.
That move was widely interpreted as a warning against supporting a candidate Beijing saw as pushing for Taiwan’s formal independence.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) won by a landslide.
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