Pelosi Taiwan visit Highlights: US-China ties on a precipice after Pelosi visit to Taiwan

US-China relations are teetering on a precipice after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit toTaiwan.

Pelosi received a rapturous welcome in Taipei and was applauded with strong bipartisan support in Washington, despite the Biden administration's misgivings. But her trip has enraged Beijing and Chinese nationalists and will complicate already strained ties even after her departure.

Already, China is preparing new shows of force in theTaiwanStrait to make clear that its claims are non-negotiable on the island it regards as a renegade province. And, as the U.S. presses ahead with demonstrations of support forTaiwan, arms sales and diplomatic lobbying, the escalating tensions have raised the risks of military confrontation, intentional or not.

. Taiwan struck a defiant tone Wednesday as a furious China geared up for military exercises encircling the island in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi's visit, hours after the senior US politician left.

Group of Seven leaders urged Beijing to show restraint, saying there was "no justification" for "aggressive" military drills in the Taiwan Strait.

US House Speaker Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday morning, having defied a series of increasingly stark threats from Beijing, which views the island as its territory and warned it would consider the visit a major provocation.

China later announced what it said were "necessary and just" military drills in the seas just off Taiwan's coast -- some of the world's busiest waterways.

"In the current struggle surrounding Pelosi's Taiwan visit, the United States are the provocateurs, China is the victim," Beijing's foreign ministry said.

. After a trip that drew China's wrath, a defiant Nancy Pelosi concluded her visit to Taiwan on Wednesday with a pledge that the American commitment to democracy on the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.”

Pelosi was the first US House speaker to visit the island in more than 25 years, and China swiftly responded by announcing multiple military exercises nearby.

The speaker's departure for South Korea came just a day before China was scheduled to launch its largest maneuvers aimed at Taiwan in more than a quarter of a century.

. Canada is extremely concerned with heightened tensions after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit this week, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday, calling on China to de-escalate the situation.

"We think that legislators do visits around the world and clearly the visit cannot be used as a justification for heightened tensions or a pretext," Joly, speaking alongside her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, told reporters in Montreal.

"So, in that sense we call on China to de-escalate because we think that there may be risks of not only heightened tensions, but also destabilizing the region," Joly said. - Reuters.

. China cannot prevent world leaders from traveling to Taiwan, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday after concluding a visit to the self-ruled island.

"Sadly, Taiwan has been prevented from participating in global meetings, most recently the World Health Organization, because of objections by the Chinese Communist Party," Pelosi said in statement.

"While they may prevent Taiwan from sending its leaders to global forums, they cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing Democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration." - Reuters.

. The Group of Seven industrialised nations on Wednesday condemned military drills announced by China around Taiwan in the wake of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island.

"There is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait" and China's "escalatory response risks increasing tensions and destabilising the region", the G7 foreign ministers said in a statement. - AFP

. Twenty-seven Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan's air defence zone on Wednesday, Taipei said, as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her controversial visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers its territory.

"27 PLA aircraft... entered the surrounding area of (Republic of China) on August 3, 2022," the defence ministry said in a tweet. - AFP.

. China warned airlines operating in Asia to avoid flying in areas around Taiwan where it is conducting military exercises in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.

An official notice sent late on Tuesday Hong Kong time designated six areas of airspace as “danger zones,” according to carriers who received the message and Jang Chang Seog, a Korean transport ministry official. Flights will be restricted from 12 pm Aug. 4, to 12 pm Aug. 7.

. Taiwan expects to be the target of increased "psychological warfare" in coming days, a government official said on Wednesday, referring to misinformation campaigns meant to sway public opinion.

The official was speaking at a media briefing following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered Beijing. - Reuters.

. Taiwan struck a defiant tone Wednesday as it hosted US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with a furious China gearing up for military exercises dangerously close to the island's shores in retaliation for the visit.

. Global stocks mostly rose Wednesday as traders tracked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which has further strained China-US ties.

The highest profile trip to Taiwan in 25 years by a US politician met with condemnation from Beijing, which warned of serious economic and military consequences.

The news had sent shivers on Tuesday through trading floors that were already on edge over the Ukraine war, surging inflation, rising interest rates and slowing economic growth.

However, most equity markets edged upwards on Wednesday.

Here's how the markets reacted

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 per cent at 7,413.24 points

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.2 per cent at 13,478.84

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 at 6,421.76

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 per cent at 3,699.33

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 per cent at 27,741.90 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 per cent at 19,767.09 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.7 per cent at 3,163.67 (close)

Taipei - TAIEX: DOWN 0.2 per cent at 14,777.02 (close)

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.2 per cent at 32,396.17 (close)

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 133.04 yen from 133.10 yen Tuesday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0196 from $1.0166

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2185 from $1.2170

Euro/pound: UP at 83.68 pence from 83.57 pence

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.9 per cent at $99.62 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 per cent at $93.88 per barrel

. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting leaders in Taiwan despite warnings from China, said on Wednesday that she and other members of Congress in a visiting delegation are showing they will not abandon their commitment to the self-governing island.

. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after pledging solidarity and hailing its democracy, leaving a trail of Chinese anger over her brief visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.

Pelosi, whose delegation made an unannounced but closely watched stop in Taiwan late on Tuesday after visits to Singapore and Malaysia, was scheduled to continue her Asian tour with stops in South Korea and Japan.

Her plane took off from an airport in the capital Taipei at around 6 pm (1000 GMT) local time. - Reuters.

. The possibility of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan was raised with China's foreign minister last month and there were no plans for the two countries' top diplomats to meet this week in Cambodia, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the potential for Pelosi's visit with counterpart Wang Yi during a G20 meeting in Bali that lasted more than five hours, and said any such trip would be entirely Pelosi's decision and independent of the US government.

"The question is whether Beijing will try to use the trip as some kind of excuse to take steps that could be escalatory or that could somehow produce conflict," the senior State Department official told reporters in Tokyo, adding that Beijing should not overreact to a trip that was neither unusual nor unprecedented. - Reuters.

. A few Chinese old-timers read the pages of a newspaper on Wednesday hung up behind glass on an outdoor display board in a relic of pre-smartphone days, when that's how people in China got the news.

Wang Junzhong, 70, peered at an editorial in the Global Times, an outspoken, fiercely nationalistic voice of the ruling Communist Party. The headline read, “To safeguard national sovereignty and security, the Chinese military dares to show the spirit of the sword."

After weeks of threatening rhetoric, China showed the spirit but stopped short of any direct military confrontation with the US over the visit to Taiwan of a senior American politician, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Instead, it opted for military drills as a show of force, sending fighter jets into the air and scrambling crews on navy ships in simulated emergencies after Pelosi defied Chinese warnings and flew into Taiwan on a US government plane on Tuesday night. - AP.

. Lending its support to its all-weather ally China, Pakistan on Wednesday said US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan will have "serious implications" for regional peace and stability.

Pelosi landed in Taipei on Tuesday night disregarding China's stern warnings. She is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. After Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strong statement, saying that her visit is a "serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques".( PTI )

. The sight of the USHouse of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving in Taiwan late on Tuesday was too much to bear for many mainland China internet users, who wanted a more muscular response from their government.

"Going to bed yesterday night, I was so angry I could not sleep," blogger Xiaoyuantoutiao wrote on Wednesday.

"But what angers me is not the online clamours for 'starting a fight', 'spare the island but not its people'...(but that) this old she-devil, she actually dares to come!"

. USSecretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the possibility of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan with his Chinese counterpart in Bali last month, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday.

Blinken has no plans to meet his Chinese or Russian counterparts this week in Cambodia, the official said, where foreign ministers from ASEAN and more than a dozen other countries are attending regional meetings.( Reuters )

. Taiwan is negotiating with Japan and the Philipines for an alternative aviation route, says Taiwan transport minister. The minister adds that there's no need to find as alternative sea transport as ships can avoid Chinese drill zones.

. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is currently in Taiwan which has heightened US-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress because of her high-level position as leader of the House of Representatives as well as for her previous acts of defiance against the totalitarian state.

. China furiously condemned the highest-level U.S. visit to Taiwan in 25 years as House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed the self-ruled island as "one of the freest societies in the world" and pledged American solidarity.

Beijing demonstrated its anger with Pelosi's presence on an island that it says is part of China with a burst of military activity in surrounding waters, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan.( Reuters )

. China has summoned the American envoy here to lodge a stern protest over Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's high-profile visit to Taipei, warning that Washington will "pay a price" for its "mistakes" and asked it to stop using the Taiwan issue to contain China in any form.

. Natural sand: China's commerce ministry said exports of natural sand - widely used for construction and in concrete - to Taiwan were suspended from Wednesday. Such a move was based on laws and regulations, the ministry said, without elaborating.

Fruit and fish :China also halted imports of citrus fruit, chilled white striped hairtail and frozen horse mackerel from Taiwan from Wednesday, a suspension which it said was due to pesticide residue found on citrus fruit, while traces of the novel coronavirus were detected on the packaging of some frozen fish products in June. China's top food and agricultural imports from Taiwan include seafood, coffee, dairy products, beverages and vinegar.

Two foundations: China also vowed to take "disciplinary actions" against two Taiwan foundations which it claimed had aggressively engaged in pro-independence separatist activities. The two foundations - Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Taiwan Foreign Ministry's International Cooperation and Development Fund - will be banned from cooperating with any organisations, companies and individuals in the mainland, China's state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday cited Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, as saying.

In addition, executives at the four Taiwanese companies - solar producer Speedtech Energy Co., Hyweb Technology Co., medical equipment producer Skyla, and cold chain vehicle fleet management company SkyEyes - will be prohibited from entering mainland China.

. By allowing the 82-year-old top Democrat to visit Taipei, China accuses the US of violating the 'One China' policy under which Beijing regards Taiwan as part of the Chinese mainland.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, a Chinese official body which looks after Taiwan affairs, announced the punitive measures on organisations related to die-hard elements seeking "Taiwan independence".

. Furious over the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's high-profile visit to Taipei, the first by a top American official in 25 years, China on Wednesday announced punitive measures on outfits seeking "Taiwan independence”, banned imports of some Taiwanese food products and suspended the export of natural sand.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments, announced a series of military exercises around the self-ruled island on Tuesday night after Pelosi landed in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. ( PTI )

. In response to her arrival late Tuesday, China launched military exercises in six areas in the waters surrounding Taiwan. They are expected to include long-range live-fire exercises and last through Sunday.

The manouevres are seen as the biggest show of military muscle from Beijing since the 1995 Taiwan Strait crisis, when China fired missiles over Taiwan and the US dispatched two aircraft carrier groups. ( IANS )

. Taiwan's defence ministry said Wednesday that China's military exercises in response to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi breach the island's territorial waters.

"Some of the areas of China's drills breach into... (Taiwan's) territorial waters," defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said at a press conference. "This is an irrational move to challenge the international order."( AFP )

. Pelosi on Wednesday said that the US wants Taiwan to always have freedom with security. "We are supporters of status quo, we don't want anything to happen to Taiwan by force."

"Taiwan's strengths have been in its techonological advacncement and democratic development, we have to show the world Taiwan's success in those respects."

. Pelosi has made a mission over decades of showing support for embattled democracy movements. Those include a trip in 1991 to Tiananmen Square, where she and other lawmakers unrolled a small banner supporting democracy, as frowning Chinese security officers tried to shut them down. Chinese forces had crushed a homegrown democracy movement at the same spot two years earlier.

The speaker is framing her Taiwan trip as part of a broader mission at a time when "the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy." She led a congressional delegation to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the spring, and her latest effort serves as a capstone to her years of promoting democracy abroad.

"We must stand by Taiwan," she said in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on her arrival in Taiwan. She cited the commitment that the US made to a democratic Taiwan under a 1979 law.

"It is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats," she wrote.

. Neither Xi nor Biden have an interest in triggering a conflict that could do even more economic damage at home, and the call last week indicated they were preparing for their first face-to-face meeting as leaders in the coming months.

But the bellicose rhetoric and growing animosity in both countries adds to pressure on Xi to take a strong response, particularly as he prepares for a twice-a-decade party meeting later this year at which he’s expected to secure a third term in office.

. > US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Tuesday arrived in Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced that it would conduct military maneuvers in retaliation for her presence.

> Pelosi addressed Taiwan's Parliament on Wednesday and called for increased inter-parliamentary cooperation.

> Meanwhile, Taiwan said more than 20 Chinese military aircraft had flown into the island's air defence identification zone -- an area wider than its territorial airspace that overlaps with part of China's air defence zone.

> Taiwan's cabinet on Wednesday said the military has increased its alertness level and authorities will make plans to ensure safety and stability around the island nation.

> Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday the island would "not back down" as a furious China geared up for military drills in retaliation for the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

> The People's Liberation Army was also due to conduct a series of drills. China's official Xinhua News said the army planned to conduct live-fire drills from August 4 to 7 across multiple locations.

> Her visit has ratcheted up tension between China and the United States because China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and it views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island's sovereignty.

. Taiwan's cabinet on Wednesday said the military has increased its alertness level and authorities will make plans to ensure safety and stability around the island nation, after China announced a series of military exercises.

Taiwan's cabinet also said its citizens should feel reassured and that a national stabilisation fund for the stock market will closely watch the situation and react in a timely manner.

. Asian markets mostly rose Wednesday after the previous day's reverse, with focus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which has further strained already tense China-US ties and raised concerns about the long-term impact on the global outlook.

The highest profile trip to the island in 25 years by a US politician was met with condemnation from Beijing, which warned of serious economic and military consequences.

Here's how marketsare reacting:

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.5 per cent at 27,740.97 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.9 per cent at 19,864.26

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 per cent at 3,204.47

Taipei - TAIEX: DOWN 0.1 per cent at 14,732.65

Dollar/yen: UP at 133.54 yen from 133.10 yen Tuesday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0174 from $1.0168

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2165 from $1.2163

Euro/pound: UP at 83.64 pence from 83.57 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1 percent at $94.50 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: FLAT at $100.54 per barrel

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.2 percent at 32,396.17 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,409.11 (close)

. Japan expresses concern to China over Taiwan Strait drills, reports AFP, citing Japan's government.

. Southeast Asian foreign ministers will seek ways to help calm rising tensions over Taiwan at regional talks Wednesday, after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived on the island, enraging Beijing.

Pelosi's dramatic late-night arrival in Taipei, defying threats of reprisals by China, looks set to dominate the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, which had been due to focus on the bloody crisis in Myanmar.

Attention will focus instead on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his American counterpart Antony Blinken -- both flying into the Cambodian capital for regional security talks with ASEAN on Thursday and Friday.( AFP )

. USHouse of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022, in this screengrab taken from video. Credit:Taiwan Pool via Reuters

. The standoff between the US and China over Taiwan has thrown a spotlight on growing risks to one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes -- even a minor disruption could ripple through supply chains.

The Taiwan Strait is the primary route for ships passing from China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to points west, carrying goods from Asian factory hubs to markets in Europe, the US and all points in between. Almost half of the global container fleet and a whopping 88 per cent of the world’s largest ships by tonnage passed through the waterway this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

. US Speaker Pelosi is truly one of Taiwan's most devoted friends. We are grateful to you to make this visit to Taiwan to showcase the US Congress' staunch support for Taiwan, saysPresident Tsai Ing-wen.

The president adds that aggressions against democratic Taiwan would have a tremendous impact on the security of the entire Indo-Pacific. She says that Taiwan, facing deliberately heightened military threats, will not back down.

"Taiwan is committed to maintaining peace andstability in the Taiwan Strait, and we will make Taiwan a key stabilising force for regional security ensuring a free andopen Indo-Pacific," she adds.

. Planned Chinese live-fire military drills encircling Taiwan threaten the island's key ports and urban areas, Taipei's defence ministry said Wednesday, vowing "strengthened" defences and a resolute response as cross-strait tensions soar.

Island authorities pilloried Beijing's bellicose military posture just hours after China flew 21 military planes into Taiwan's air defence zone.

China's leaders have expressed fury at the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, painting it as a provocation that threatens the fragile cross-strait status quo. ( AFP )

. US Speaker Pelosi is truly one of Taiwan's most devoted friends. We are grateful to you to make this visit to Taiwan to showcase the US Congress' staunch support for Taiwan: President Tsai Ing-wen

. Taiwan's defence ministry said on Wednesday that Chinese live-fire drills around the democratic island this week demonstrated Beijing's intention to destroy regional peace and stability.

Taiwan has enhanced alertness levels and will react timely and appropriately to the drills, a defence ministry spokesman told reporters via a voice message.

. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Taiwanese parliament on Wednesday the US chip bill would offer a good opportunity for US-Taiwan cooperation in the chip industry.

. US House Speaker NancyPelosisaid Wednesday that her delegation had come to Taiwan in "peace for the region", after the visit enraged Beijing and set off a diplomatic firestorm.

She landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China, which views Taiwan as its territory and had warned it would consider her visit a major provocation.

. North Korea on Wednesday slammed what it called the United States' "impudent interference" in China's internal affairs over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, state media reported.

Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, becoming the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

Beijing has made clear that it regards her presence as a major provocation and has issued increasingly stark warnings and threats.

. China's UK ambassador Zheng Zeguang vowed "severe consequences" if British lawmakers visit Taiwan, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.

Visits would interfere in China's internal affairs and would lead to severe consequences in China-UK relations, Zheng said at a news conference in London, the report said.

"We call on the UK side to abide by the Sino-UK joint communique and not to underestimate the extreme sensitivity of the Taiwan issue, and not to follow the U.S.'s footsteps," the Guardian quoted Zheng as saying.

Zheng's comments came after the Guardian reported on Monday that Britain's House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee is planning a visit to Taiwan probably in November or early December this year.

Taiwan faces mounting pressure from China, which considers the democratically governed island its own territory.

. With her trip to Taiwan - the first by a US speaker of the House in over two decades - Nancy Pelosi has prompted a harsh rebuke from China. But the powerful 82-year-old lawmaker has a long history of riling Beijing over democracy and human rights

. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet with Mark Liu, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Pelosi and Liu will discuss implementation of the recently passed Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion of U.S. federal subsidies for domestic chip factories, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The meeting is planned for Wednesday Taiwan time, it said.

. China summoned the US ambassador in Beijing Tuesday to rebuke him over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "egregious" trip toTaiwan, state media reported.

Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng voiced "strong protests" over Pelosi's visit to the democratic self-governing island, which China considers part of its territory, during his talk with Ambassador Nicholas Burns.

. North Korea's foreign ministry on Wednesday criticised what it called US "interference" on China's internal affairs over House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit toTaiwan, the North's official KCNA said.

. More than 30 years ago, US Representative Nancy Pelosi angered China's government by showing up in Tiananmen Square and unfurling a banner honoring dissidents killed in the 1989 protests.

On Tuesday, as speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi disregarded China's fiery warnings and landed in Taiwan to support its government and meet with human rights activists. READ MORE...

. In a statement issued upon arrival in Taiwan, Pelosi & Congressional Delegation said: "This visit is the first official visit to Taiwan by a Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in 25 years."

"Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy."

"Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Indo-Pacific — including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan — focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance. Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy."

"Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo."

. The PLA will conduct a series of live fire military drills from August 4 to 7 in six different areas that encircle the island of Taiwan from all directions, according to the Xinhua News Agency after Pelosi landed at the Taipei airport. Analysts said there are many options on the table for China to speed up the reunification process. Apart from military drills, the options could include striking Taiwan military targets, just as the PLA did in the previous Taiwan Straits crisis, pushing new legislation for national reunification, sending military aircraft and vessels to enter the island's "airspace" and "water areas" controlled by the Taiwan authorities and ending the tacit cease-fire with the Taiwan military, Chinese daily Global Times reported .

. Taiwan Presidential Office: President Tsai will meet Pelosi at Presidential office in the before having lunch with her.

. China has branded the landmark visit toTaiwanby US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "extremely dangerous", media reports said.

China accused Pelosi, the most senior US politician in 25 years to visit the island nation, which China claims as its own, of "playing with fire", the BBC reported

"Those who play with fire will perish by it," Beijing warned in a statement, the report said.

. Moscow said Tuesday that ally China had every right to take measures to protect its sovereignty and called US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit a "clear provocation".

"The Chinese side has the right to take necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity over the Taiwan issue," the Russian foreign ministry said. Moscow called Pelosi's visit "a clear provocation" aimed at containing China. READ MORE

. More than 20 Chinese military planes flew into Taiwan's air defence zone on Tuesday, officials in Taipei said, as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began her controversial visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers its territory. READ MORE

. China Tuesday warned that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 's visit to Taiwan disregarding its stern warnings will have a "severe impact" on bilateral ties and it "gravely undermines" regional peace and stability, as the official media here said that the military will launch a series of "targeted" operations to counter her trip.

. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan shows "rock solid" support from Washington, Taiwan said early Wednesday shortly after the senior lawmaker touched down in Taipei.

"We believe that the visit by Speaker Pelosi... will strengthen the close and friendly relations between Taiwan and the United States, and further deepen the global cooperation between the two sides in all areas," Taipei's foreign ministry said. - AFP.

. Stock markets fell Tuesday as investors dumped risky equities on spiking China-US tensions over a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

Traders were already skittish after a string of data showed economies beginning to take a hit from surging inflation and central bank interest rate hikes aimed at taming prices.

Any meeting between Pelosi and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is sure to anger Beijing, which views the island as its territory and has said the White House was playing "with fire".

Observers do not think the move will spark a conflict but moments before her arrival in Taiwan on Tuesday, Chinese state media announced advanced Su-35 fighter jets were crossing the Taiwan Strait. - AFP.

. Digital attacks against Taiwanese government websites ahead of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's arrival in Tapei on Tuesday were likely launched by Chinese activist hackers, or "hacktivists," a cybersecurity research organisation said.

The website of Taiwan's presidential office was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Tuesday and was at one point malfunctioning, the office said in a statement.

Access to the website was restored within about 20 minutes of the attack, the statement said. Taiwanese government agencies were monitoring the situation in the face of "information warfare," a spokesperson later added. - Reuters.. Euro zone government bond yields rose in volatile trading on Tuesday as nervousness around US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan appeared to ease.

Concerns about an escalation in Sino-US tensions drove investors to safe-haven assets like bonds in earlier trade. Beijing had warned Pelosi against her visit, saying it would undermine Sino-US relations.

The Chinese foreign ministry condemned Pelosi's visit, saying it seriously damaged peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

But jitters eased as investors surmised that a diplomatic outcome will somehow be worked out, traders said. - Reuters.

. China on Tuesday warned that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan disregarding its stern warnings will have a "severe impact" on bilateral ties and her move "gravely undermines" regional peace and stability, as the official media here reported air and ground movement of troops in the Taiwan Straits. - PTI.

. The United States must remember its vow "to support the defense of Taiwan" as its democracy remains "under threat" from China, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a Washington Post opinion piece published on Tuesday, moments after she arrived in Taiwan on a visit that risks bringing relations between Washington and Beijing to a new low. - Reuters.

. China on Tuesday slammed the United States' actions in Taiwan as "extremely dangerous", after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived on the island for a visit that has inflamed tensions between the superpowers.

"The United States... constantly distorts, obscures and hollows out the 'One China' principle," Beijing's foreign ministry said in a statement after Pelosi's plane touched down in Taiwan. "These moves, like playing with fire, are extremely dangerous. Those who play with fire will perish by it." - AFP.

. US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday, starting a visit that Beijing had warned her against taking, saying it would undermine Sino-US relations.

. Pelosi is the first House Speaker since 1997 to visit the island country, which China claims as its own territory and vows to take over by force, if necessary. The last House Speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.

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