John Kirby who served as Pentagon Press Secretary for the first year and a half of the Biden Administration blasted President Joe Biden’s decision on Taiwan’s independence.
After US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her plans to visit Taiwan last Tuesday, making her the first top US official who visited the country, China warned that the United States shall take “serious consequences” if Pelosi pushed her plan.
“The US will be responsible for all of the serious consequences,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in an official statement last week.
Lijian also warned that there will be “firm and resolute measures” in response to Pelosi’s trip.
The U.S. is now openly supporting the imperialist aggression of the Chinese Communist Party. Just another day in the Biden White House. https://t.co/8leuvOqrc8
— Ben Kew 🐶 (@ben_kew) August 1, 2022
The Pentagon also issued a statement expressing the officials’ concerns about Pelosi’s safety and argued that the House Speaker’s decision will worsen the tension between Taiwan and the US.
However, despite all China’s threats of retaliation and the warnings from the Pentagon, Pelosi still pushed through and landed in Taipei on Tuesday.
Pelosi even released a statement against China, stating that the visit “honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.”
After that, China responded to Pelosi’s statement and announced that they would launch military exercises and with bellicose rhetoric warning that the speaker’s visit “has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence.’ China firmly opposes and sternly condemns this, and has made serious démarche and strong protest to the United States.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Moreover, following China’s response to Pelosi’s visit, John Kirby blasted the decision during the August 1st press conference.
“The Speaker has the right to visit Taiwan and a Speaker of the House has visited Taiwan before without incident, as have many members of Congress including this year. Nothing has changed about our ‘one China policy,’ which is, of course, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three joint US-PRC communiques [and] the six assurances.” Kirby lamented.
“We have said that we do not support Taiwan independence and we have said that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means. “Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing US policy into some sort of crisis or conflict or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait.” Biden’s former Pentagon spokesperson said.
However, it’s not only Kirby who released a statement opposing the administration’s decision.
General Mark Milley also released a statement apologizing to China for the American system.
“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.” Milley said.
“General Li, you and I have known each other for five years now. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” He added.
“We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” Milley continued.
