Nancy Pelosi – Page 2 – Michmutters

Tag: Nancy Pelosi

Categories
US

In S. Korea, Pelosi avoids public comments on Taiwan, China

In S. Korea, Pelosi avoids public comments on Taiwan, China

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After infuriating China over her trip to Taiwan, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met South Korean political leaders in Seoul on Thursday but avoided making direct public comments on cross-Strait relations that could have further increased regional tensions.

Pelosi, the first incumbent House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the American commitment to democracy on the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” In response, China announced it would launch its largest military maneuvers aimed at Taiwan in more than a quarter of a century.

After visiting Taiwan, Pelosi and other members of Congress flew to South Korea — a key US ally where about 28,500 American troops are deployed — on Wednesday evening, as part of an Asian tour that included stops in Singapore and Malaysia.

She met South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo and other senior members of Parliament on Thursday. After that hour-long meeting, Pelosi spoke about the bilateral alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, and legislative efforts to support a push to boost ties but did n’t directly mention her Taiwan visit de ella or the Chinese protests.

“We also come to say to you that a friendship, a relationship that began from urgency and security, many years ago, has become the warmest of friendships,” Pelosi said in a joint news conference with Kim. “We want to advance security, economy and governance in the inter-parliamentary way.”

Neither Pelosi nor Kim took questions from journalists.

Kim said he and Pelosi shared concerns about North Korea’s increasing nuclear threats. He said the two agreed to support their governments’ push to establish denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula based on both strong deterrence against North Korea and diplomacy.

Later in the day, Pelosi planned to visit an inter-Korean border area that is jointly controlled by the American-led UN Command and North Korea, a South Korean official said requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media on the matter .

If that visit occurs, Pelosi would be the highest-level American to go to the Joint Security Area since then-President Donald Trump went there in 2019 for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Sitting inside the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile)-wide Demilitarized Zone, a buffer created at the end of the Korean War, the JSA is the site of past bloodshed and a venue for numerous talks. US presidents and other top officials have often traveled to the JSA and other border areas to reaffirm their security commitment to South Korea.

Any critical statement from North Korea by Pelosi is certain to draw a furious response from Pyongyang. On Wednesday, the North’s Foreign Ministry slammed the United States over her Taiwan trip, saying that “the current situation clearly shows that the impudent interference of the US in internal affairs of other countries.”

Pelosi will speak by phone Thursday afternoon with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a vacation this week, according to Yoon’s office. No face-to-face meeting has been arranged between them. Yoon, a conservative, took office in May with a vow to boost South Korea’s military alliance with the United States and take a tougher line on North Korean provocations.

Pelosi’s Taiwan visit has angered China, which views the island nation as a breakaway province to be annexed by force if necessary. China views visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognizing its sovereignty.

“Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” Pelosi said in a short speech during a meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday. “America’s determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world, remains ironclad.”

The Biden administration and Pelosi have said the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. The administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from visiting.

The military exercises that China launched in response to Pelosi’s Taiwan visit started Thursday, the Chinese military said. They were expected to be the biggest aimed at Taiwan since 1995, when China fired missiles in a large-scale exercise to show its displeasure over a visit by then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to the US

China also already flew fighter jets and other war planes toward Taiwan, and blocked imports of citrus and fish from Taiwan.

Tsai pushed back firmly against Beijing’s military exercises, parts of which will enter Taiwanese waters.

“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said at her meeting with Pelosi. “We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.”

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry on Thursday called the Chinese drills “unreasonable actions in an attempt to change the status quo, destroy the peace and stability of the region.”

“Our national military will continue to strengthen its alertness level, and every squadron will conduct normally their daily training in their usual places of operation,” it added.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sought to tamp down fears. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that US officials “don’t believe we’re at the brink now, and there’s certainly no reason for anybody to be talking about being at the brink going forward.”

Addressing Beijing’s threats, Pelosi said she hopes it’s clear that while China has prevented Taiwan from attending certain international meetings, “that they understand they will not stand in the way of people coming to Taiwan as a show of friendship and of support.”

Pelosi noted that congressional support for Taiwan is bipartisan, and she praised the island’s democracy. She stopped short of saying that the US would defend Taiwan militarily and emphasized that Congress is “committed to the security of Taiwan, in order to have Taiwan be able to most effectively defend themselves.”

On Thursday, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations called for calm in the Taiwan Strait, urging against any “provocative action.” ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a regional forum said they were concerned the situation could “destabilize the region and eventually could lead to miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts and unpredictable consequences among major powers.”

Pelosi’s focus has always been the same, she said, going back to her 1991 visit to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, when she and other lawmakers unfurled a small banner supporting democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters at the square. That visit was also about human rights and what she called dangerous technology transfers to “rogue countries.”

Pelosi’s trip heightened US-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress because of her position as leader of the House of Representatives. The last House speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.

China and Taiwan, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have no official relations but multibillion-dollar business ties.

__

Wu reported from Taipei Taiwan.

__

Associated Press writer David Rising in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.

.

Categories
US

Pelosi Taiwan visit puts TSMC back in spotlight of US-China rivalry

Pelosi Taiwan visit puts TSMC back in spotlight of US-China rivalry

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the biggest contract chipmaker in the world. But it has been thrust in the middle of US-China geopolitical tensions. logo displayed on the screen.

Raphael Henrique | Soup Images | lightrocket | Getty Images

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have left Taiwan but the visit has cast a spotlight once again on the island’s critical role in the global chip supply chain and in particular on the world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC.

The controversial visit, which angered Beijing, saw Pelosi meet with TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, in a sign of how critically important semiconductors are to US national security and the integral role that the company plays in making the most advanced chips.

Semiconductors, which go into everything from our smartphones to cars and refrigerators, have become a key part of the US and China’s rivalry over technology in the past few years. More recently, a shortage of semiconductors has spurred the US to try to catch up with Asia and maintain a lead over China in the industry.

“Taiwan’s unresolved diplomatic status will remain a source of intense geopolitical uncertainty. Even Pelosi’s trip underlines how important Taiwan is for both countries,” Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Wednesday.

“The obvious reason being its crucial strategic importance as a chip manufacturer and in the global semiconductor supply chain.”

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and meeting with TSMC show the US can’t do it alone and will require collaboration with Asian companies that dominate the most cutting-edge chips.

TSMC’s crucial role

TSMC is a foundry. That means it manufactures chips that other companies design. TSMC has a long list of clients from Apple to Nvidia, some of the world’s biggest technology companies.

As the US fell behind in chip manufacturing over the last 15 years or so, companies like TSMC and Samsung Electronics in South Korea, pushed ahead with cutting-edge chipmaking techniques. While they still rely on tools and technology from the US, Europe and elsewhere, TSMC in particular, managed to cement its place as the world’s top chipmaker.

TSMC accounts for 54% of the global foundry market, according to Counterpoint Research. Taiwan as a country accounts for about two-thirds of the global foundry market alone when considering TSMC alongside other players like UMC and Vanguard. That highlights the importance of Taiwan in the world’s semiconductor market.

When you add Samsung into the mix, which has 15% of the global foundry market share, then Asia really dominates the chipmaking sphere.

That’s why Pelosi made it a point to meet with TSMC’s chairman.

Taiwan invasion fears

China views democratically, self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be reunified with the mainland. Beijing spent weeks telling Pelosi not to come to Taiwan.

During her visit, China ratcheted up tensions by carrying out military drills.

There is a concern that any kind of invasion of Taiwan by China could massively affect the power structure of the global chip market, giving Beijing control of technology it had not previously had. On top of that, there is a fear that an invasion could choke off the supply of cutting-edge chips to the rest of the world.

“Most likely, the Chinese would ‘nationalize it,’ (TSMC) and begin integrating the company, and its technology, into its own semiconductor industry,” Abishur Prakash, co-founder of advisory firm the Center for Innovating the Future, told CNBC via email.

What is the US doing?

How does China stack up?

SMIC is crucial to China’s ambitions, but sanctions have cut it off from the key tools it requires to make the most cutting-edge chips as TSMC does. SMIC remains years behind its rivals. And China’s semiconductor industry still relies heavily on foreign technology.

TSMC does have two chipmaking plants in China but they are producing less sophisticated semiconductors unlike the manufacturing facility in Arizona.

Chipmaking alliances

The US has been looking to form partnerships on semiconductors with allies in Asia including Japan and South Korea as a way to secure supply of the crucial components and maintain a lead over China.

TSMC meanwhile is caught in the middle of the US-China rivalry and could be forced to pick sides, according to Prakash. Its commitment to an advanced semiconductor plant in the US could already be a sign of which country it is siding with.

“In fact, a company like TSMC has already ‘picked sides.’ It’s investing in the US to support American chip making, and has said it wants to work with ‘democracies,’ like the EU, on chip making,” Prakash said.

“Increasingly, companies are striking an ideological tone in whom they work with. The question is, as tensions between Taiwan and China increase, will TSMC be able to maintain its position (aligning with the West), or will it be forced to recalibrate its geopolitical strategy.”

.

Categories
US

Pelosi Taiwan visit puts TSMC back in spotlight of US-China rivalry

Pelosi Taiwan visit puts TSMC back in spotlight of US-China rivalry

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the biggest contract chipmaker in the world. But it has been thrust in the middle of US-China geopolitical tensions. logo displayed on the screen.

Raphael Henrique | Soup Images | lightrocket | Getty Images

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have left Taiwan but the visit has cast a spotlight once again on the island’s critical role in the global chip supply chain and in particular on the world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC.

The controversial visit, which angered Beijing, saw Pelosi meet with TSMC Chairman Mark Liu, in a sign of how critically important semiconductors are to US national security and the integral role that the company plays in making the most advanced chips.

Semiconductors, which go into everything from our smartphones to cars and refrigerators, have become a key part of the US and China’s rivalry over technology in the past few years. More recently, a shortage of semiconductors has spurred the US to try to catch up with Asia and maintain a lead over China in the industry.

“Taiwan’s unresolved diplomatic status will remain a source of intense geopolitical uncertainty. Even Pelosi’s trip underlines how important Taiwan is for both countries,” Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Wednesday.

“The obvious reason being its crucial strategic importance as a chip manufacturer and in the global semiconductor supply chain.”

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and meeting with TSMC show the US can’t do it alone and will require collaboration with Asian companies that dominate the most cutting-edge chips.

TSMC’s crucial role

TSMC is a foundry. That means it manufactures chips that other companies design. TSMC has a long list of clients from Apple to Nvidia, some of the world’s biggest technology companies.

As the US fell behind in chip manufacturing over the last 15 years or so, companies like TSMC and Samsung Electronics in South Korea, pushed ahead with cutting-edge chipmaking techniques. While they still rely on tools and technology from the US, Europe and elsewhere, TSMC in particular, managed to cement its place as the world’s top chipmaker.

TSMC accounts for 54% of the global foundry market, according to Counterpoint Research. Taiwan as a country accounts for about two-thirds of the global foundry market alone when considering TSMC alongside other players like UMC and Vanguard. That highlights the importance of Taiwan in the world’s semiconductor market.

When you add Samsung into the mix, which has 15% of the global foundry market share, then Asia really dominates the chipmaking sphere.

That’s why Pelosi made it a point to meet with TSMC’s chairman.

Taiwan invasion fears

China views democratically, self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be reunified with the mainland. Beijing spent weeks telling Pelosi not to come to Taiwan.

During her visit, China ratcheted up tensions by carrying out military drills.

There is a concern that any kind of invasion of Taiwan by China could massively affect the power structure of the global chip market, giving Beijing control of technology it had not previously had. On top of that, there is a fear that an invasion could choke off the supply of cutting-edge chips to the rest of the world.

“Most likely, the Chinese would ‘nationalize it,’ (TSMC) and begin integrating the company, and its technology, into its own semiconductor industry,” Abishur Prakash, co-founder of advisory firm the Center for Innovating the Future, told CNBC via email.

What is the US doing?

How does China stack up?

SMIC is crucial to China’s ambitions, but sanctions have cut it off from the key tools it requires to make the most cutting-edge chips as TSMC does. SMIC remains years behind its rivals. And China’s semiconductor industry still relies heavily on foreign technology.

TSMC does have two chipmaking plants in China but they are producing less sophisticated semiconductors unlike the manufacturing facility in Arizona.

Chipmaking alliances

The US has been looking to form partnerships on semiconductors with allies in Asia including Japan and South Korea as a way to secure supply of the crucial components and maintain a lead over China.

TSMC meanwhile is caught in the middle of the US-China rivalry and could be forced to pick sides, according to Prakash. Its commitment to an advanced semiconductor plant in the US could already be a sign of which country it is siding with.

“In fact, a company like TSMC has already ‘picked sides.’ It’s investing in the US to support American chip making, and has said it wants to work with ‘democracies,’ like the EU, on chip making,” Prakash said.

“Increasingly, companies are striking an ideological tone in whom they work with. The question is, as tensions between Taiwan and China increase, will TSMC be able to maintain its position (aligning with the West), or will it be forced to recalibrate its geopolitical strategy.”

.

Categories
US

Pelosi tells Taiwan US commitment to democracy is ‘ironclad’

Pelosi tells Taiwan US commitment to democracy is 'ironclad'

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — 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.

Before leaving, a calm but resolute Pelosi repeated previous remarks about the world facing “a choice between democracy and autocracy.”

“America’s determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world, remains ironclad,” she said in a short speech during a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

China claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments.

The Biden administration, and Pelosi, have said that the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policywhich recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

Nevertheless, China issued a series of harsh statements after the American delegation touched down late Tuesday in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.

Taiwanese President Tsai pushed back firmly against Beijing’s military exercises, parts of which will enter Taiwanese waters.

“Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said at her meeting with Pelosi. “We will firmly uphold our nation’s sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy.”

The exercises, including those involving live fire, are to start Thursday and will be the biggest aimed at Taiwan since 1995, when China fired missiles in a large-scale exercise to show its displeasure over a visit by then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui to the US

In other activities, Pelosi visited a human rights museum in Taipei that details the history of the island’s martial-law era. She also met with some of Taiwan’s most prominent rights activists, including an exiled former Hong Kong bookseller who was detained by Chinese authorities, Lam Wing-kee.

Thanking Pelosi for her decades of support for Taiwan, the president presented her with a civilian honor, the Order of the Propitious Clouds.

A day earlier, China’s official Xinhua News Agency announced the military operations and showed a map outlining six different areas around Taiwan.

Arthur Zhin-Sheng Wang, a defense studies expert at Taiwan’s Central Police University, said three of the areas infringe on Taiwanese waters, meaning they are within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of shore.

Using live fire in a country’s territorial airspace or waters is risky, Wang said, because under international rules of engagement, it can be seen as an act of war.

In Washington, John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, sought to tamp down fears. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday that US officials “don’t believe we’re at the brink now, and there’s certainly no reason for anybody to be talking about being at the brink going forward.”

Pelosi’s trip 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. The last House speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.

China’s response came on multiple fronts—military, diplomatic and economic.

Shortly after Pelosi landed Tuesday night, China announced live-fire drills that reportedly started that night, as well as the four-day exercises starting Thursday. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force also flew a contingent of 21 warplanes toward Taiwan.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned the US ambassador in Beijing to convey the country’s protests the same night.

On Wednesday, China banned some imports from Taiwan, including citrus fruit and fish. That night, China flew an additional 27 fighter jets toward Taiwan.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said a Taiwanese citizen was detained on suspicion of inciting separatism. Yang Chih-yuan, originally from the city of Taichung, was shown surrounded by police in a CCTV video. Yang had been a candidate for a legislative position in New Taipei City, according to local media.

Addressing Beijing’s threats, Pelosi said she hopes it’s clear that while China has prevented Taiwan from attending certain international meetings, “that they understand they will not stand in the way of people coming to Taiwan as a show of friendship and of support.”

Pelosi noted that congressional support for Taiwan is bipartisan, and she praised the island’s democracy. She stopped short of saying that the US would defend Taiwan militarily, emphasizing that Congress is “committed to the security of Taiwan, in order to have Taiwan be able to most effectively defend themselves.”

Her focus has always been the same, she said, going back to her 1991 visit to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, when she and other lawmakers unfurled a small banner supporting democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters at the square. That visit was also about human rights and what she called dangerous technology transfers to “rogue countries.”

On this trip, Pelosi met with representatives from Taiwan’s legislature.

The speaker’s visit is “the strongest defense” of human rights, democratic values ​​and freedom, Tsai Chi-chang, vice president of Taiwan’s legislature, said in welcome.

Pelosi’s five-member delegation included Rep. Gregory Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi from the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Andy Kim and Mark Takano also traveled with the speaker.

She also mentioned Rep. Suzan DelBene, whom Pelosi said was instrumental in the passage of a $280 billion bill aimed at boosting American manufacturing and research in semiconductor chips — an industry that Taiwan dominates and is vital for modern electronics.

Pelosi arrived Wednesday evening at a South Korea military base ahead of meetings with political leaders in Seoul, after which she will visit Japan.

Both countries are US alliance partners, together hosting about 80,000 American personnel as a bulwark against North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and China’s increased assertiveness in the South China and East China seas.

.

Categories
US

Pelosi confirms trip to Asia, but no mention of Taiwan

Pelosi confirms trip to Asia, but no mention of Taiwan

BEIJNG (AP) — The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, confirmed Sunday she will visit four Asian countries this week but made no mention of a possible stop in Taiwan that has fueled tension with Beijing, which claims the island democracy as its own territory.

Pelosi said in a statement she is leading a congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan to discuss trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, security and “democratic governance.”

Pelosi has yet to confirm news reports that she might visit Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against meddling in Beijing’s dealings with the island in a phone call Thursday with his American counterpart, Joe Biden.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step US leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the US government, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

The Biden administration didn’t explicitly urge Pelosi to avoid Taiwan but tried to assure Beijing there was no reason to “come to blows” and that if such a visit occurred, it would signal no change in US policy.

“Under the strong leadership of President Biden, America is firmly committed to smart, strategic engagement in the region, understanding that a free and flourishing Indo-Pacific is crucial to prosperity in our nation and around the globe,” Pelosi’s statement said.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the communists won a civil war on the mainland. Both sides say they are one country but disagree over which government is entitled to national leadership. They have no official relations but are linked by billions of dollars of trade and investment.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but maintains informal relations with the island. Washington is obliged by federal law to see that Taiwan has the means to defend itself.

Washington’s “One China policy” says it takes no position on the status of the two sides but wants their dispute resolved peacefully. Beijing promotes an alternative “One China principle” that says they are one country and the Communist Party is its leader.

Members of Congress publicly backed Pelosi’s interest in visiting Taiwan despite Chinese opposition. They want to avoid being seen as yielding to Beijing.

Beijing has given no details of how it might react if Pelosi goes to Taiwan, but the Ministry of Defense warned last week the military would take “strong measures to thwart any external interference.” The foreign ministry said, “those who play with fire will perish by it.”

The ruling party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, has flown growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers around Taiwan to intimidate the island.

“The Air Force’s multi-type fighter jets fly around the treasured island of the motherland, tempering and enhancing the ability to maintain national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” military spokesman Col. Shen Jinke said on Sunday, referring to Taiwan.

Pelosi said her delegation includes US Reps. Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mark Takano, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; Suzan DelBene, vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Andy Kim, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

A visit to Taiwan would be a career capstone for Pelosi, who increasingly uses her position in Congress as a US emissary on the global stage. She has long challenged China on human rights and wanted to visit Taiwan earlier this year.

In 1991, as a new member of Congress, Pelosi irked Chinese authorities by unfurling a banner on Tiananmen Square in central Beijing commemorating those killed when the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests two years earlier.

“It’s important for us to show support for Taiwan,” Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told reporters this month.

But she had made clear she was not advocating US policy changes.

“None of us has ever said we’re for independence, when it comes to Taiwan,” she said. “That’s up to Taiwan to decide.”

On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby tried to tamp down concerns.

“There’s no reason for it to come to that, to come to blows,” Kirby said at the White House. “There’s no reason for that because there’s been no change in American policy with respect to One China.”

___

Mascaro reported from Washington.

.