UNITED STATES: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has landed in Taiwan amid escalating threats from China over the visit. Her flight landed in Taipei as China closed east coast airspace around Xiamen. Reports say Chinese fighter jets have crossed the Taiwan Strait.
Earlier today, Pelosi headed to Taipei amid intensifying tensions between the US and China, four US warships including an aircraft carrier, were positioned in waters east of the island on “routine” deployments.
The US carrier Ronald Regan had already crossed the South China Sea and was in the Philippines Sea, east of Taiwan and the Philippines and south of Japan, Reuters reported as per a US Navy official.
Regan’s vessel is currently operating with a guided missile cruiser, USS Antietam, and a destroyer, USS Higgins.
The official has also issued a statement saying, “While they can respond to any eventuality, these are normal, routine deployments,” undermining any heated tensions regarding the potential threats of US interference on the waters.
While these “normal, routine deployments” do set sail at specific and regular intervals as per international norms, it is perhaps strategic and political for the deployments to be announced amid Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taipei, despite warnings from both China and US senior aides and officials.
Confirmation of these deployments are clear and telling signs of rising tensions between the two superpowers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait ahead of Pelosi’s visit.
The US Navy official also announced that the assault ship USS Tripoli was also in the area as part of the same “routine” deployment to the region that started in early May from its home port of San Diego.
On the opposing front, Chinese aircraft were also seen flying close to the median line bordering the sensitive waterway on Tuesday morning, and several Chinese warships remained close to the unofficial dividing line since Monday, according to a source who notified Reuters.
While China is yet to comment on these developments, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has its walls high up and its terms clear. On Tuesday, the Ministry said that they have complete knowledge of all the military activities near Taiwan and will appropriately dispatch forces to counter “enemy threats” perpetrated by China.
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