Amid raising tension with China, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lands in Taiwan

Beijing, Aug 02: Amid raising tension with China, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday landed in Taipei in Taiwan.

The SPAR19 flight took off from Kuala Lumpur's Subang Airport at approximately 3.40 pm, but headed east toward Borneo island, flying close to the Indonesian city of Manado before taking a turn north to the Philippines -- steering clear of the South China Sea, reported FlightRadar24.

According to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, around 320,000 users were following every move of Pelosi's flight.

#WATCH | US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives in Taipei, Taiwan.

(Source: Reuters) pic.twitter.com/cEgWZUbZ0m

— ANI (@ANI) August 2, 2022

Beijing views Pelosi's visit as a provocation and has issued increasingly severe warnings that have not ruled out a military response. "What I can tell you is, the US will definitely have to bear responsibility and pay the price for harming China's sovereignty and security interests," foreign ministry spokesman Hua Chunying told a press briefing in Beijing adding that China will take "firm and powerful" measures in response.

"If the US misjudges or handles the situation across the Taiwan Strait incorrectly, it will have catastrophic consequences for the security, prosperity and order of the Taiwan region and the world at large," she said as quoted by The Strait Times.

She was in Malaysia on Tuesday, the second stop in a tour that has sparked rage in Beijing after reports of a potential Taipei visit.

The United Daily News, Liberty Times and China Times - Taiwan's three largest national newspapers - cited unidentified sources as saying she would spend the night in Taiwan. Taiwan's Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

On the other hand, the White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby underscored that the decision on whether to visit Taiwan was ultimately Pelosi's. He noted that members of Congress have routinely visited the island over the years.

"Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait," Kirby said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also urged China to "act responsibly" if Pelosi proceeds with the visit. "If the speaker does decide to visit, and China tries to create some kind of a crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.