Hua Chunying Photo: VCG

Ahead of the potential visit of House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island of Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying gave a clear-cut message to the US in a rare appearance at the routine press conference on Tuesday, denouncing Pelosi's potential Taiwan visit as a "stupid and dangerous gambling."

Hua, a spokesperson and previous head of the ministry's information department, was promoted to the position of Assistant Foreign Minister in October 2021. The last time she attended a foreign ministry's press briefing was 159 days ago on February 24, when Russia's military operation in Ukraine started. 

As part of the US government, the US Congress should naturally adhere to the foreign policies recognized and committed by the US government. It is definitely not an unofficial act for a House of Representatives Speaker - the No. 3 top official in the US government - to visit Taiwan island on a US military plane, Hua noted. 

Hua said the entire world clearly knows that it is US' provocations that have escalated tension across the Taiwan Straits. The US must take full responsibility for it … What US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was to confuse right and wrong which once again revealed the hegemony mindset and gangster logic of some US officials. 

Blinken said on Monday that a potential visit to Taiwan by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be entirely her decision, but called on China not to escalate tensions in the event of a visit, Reuters reported. 

"If the speaker does decide to visit and China tries to create some kind of crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing," Blinken said after nuclear nonproliferation talks at the United Nations.

Asked what countermeasures would China take if Pelosi visits the island, Hua said, "what I can tell you is that the US must bear responsibility and pay the price for causing harms on China's sovereignty and security interests.''

Amid Pelosi's possible visit to the island of Taiwan, which media reported could happen Tuesday evening, both aircraft carriers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy have reportedly moved out from their homeports respectively.

Meanwhile, military trainings in both Bohai Sea and South China Sea were issued respectively from Tuesday to Saturday. The Fujian Provincial Military Command neighboring Taiwan island also posted videos and pictures on Tuesday about a live-fire exercise, which aims to "test overall combat capability under complex conditions." 

The Chinese spokesperson said the wrong actions of some US politicians should not set a precedent, still less become an excuse for the US to compound its mistakes on the Taiwan question.

The fact and status quo that Taiwan island belongs to China is clear in history. China firmly oppose "Taiwan independence" and interference by external forces, and will never leave any space for any form of "Taiwan independence" forces, Hua noted. 

She continued, saying the Chinese government and Chinese people remain a consistent position over Taiwan question. It is the firm will of the 1.4 billion Chinese people to resolutely safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, also a common aspiration of all Chinese nationals to realize the reunification of the motherland.

Hua urged the US to abandon its attempt to play the Taiwan card and live up to its words and deeds, strictly abiding by the one-China principle, and implementing the three China-US joint communiqués. 

In 1979, the US government clearly committed in the joint communiqués that it recognizes the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and within this context, the people of the US will maintain cultural, commercial and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.

One-China principle is an international basic principle and common consensus of the international community. Based on the principle, China established diplomatic ties with 181 countries including the US. The US verbally claimed its insistency on the one-China policy but its deeds continue to go backward, even hollowing the one-China principle out, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

No matter what excuse Pelosi employs for visiting China's island, it's stupid, unnecessary and dangerous gambling. It's hard to imagine a more reckless and provocative action than her visit. Such sayings have been frequently seen among many mainstream US media, intelligence and some former officials of US allied countries, the spokesperson. 

Hua warned that if the US misjudges or mishandles the cross-Straits situation, it will bring catastrophic consequences to the security, prosperity and order of the Taiwan Straits and the world at large.

Global Times