"Prepare for war!": the tweet against the US that garnered 2 million likes in China

One of the Chinese military divisions put up a post on the Chinese "Weibo" network - the equivalent of Twitter - in which they threatened the US ahead of the visit of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives for Asia

Reuters

31/07/2022

Sunday, July 31, 2022, 4:19 p.m. Updated: 4:37 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Speaker of the American House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi began a visit to four countries in Asia today (Sunday), according to a report from her office.

However, the update did not mention whether Pelosi would actually visit Taiwan, as she had planned, amid tensions between the United States and China over the sovereign island.

"Nancy Pelosi is leading a congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan," the statement said.

"The visit will focus on security and economic partnerships and democratic governance in the region."

China sees the visits of American representatives to Taiwan as sending an encouraging message to the island about its independence, which it opposes.

Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself in the event of a Chinese attack.

A visit by Pelosi, the third most important political figure in the United States, after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, will be significant but not unprecedented.

In 1997, Republican Newt Gingrich, who was then the speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Taiwan.

Xi Jinping is not ready to surrender (Photo: Reuters)

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his counterpart Joe Biden on Thursday that Washington should embrace the one-China principle and that "those who play with fire will burn and die."

In a two-hour phone call, Biden assured that the policy of the United States regarding Taiwan has not changed, and that Washington opposes changing the status quo or undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

Chinese Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke was quoted today as saying that Beijing will "resolutely defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

A post by a Chinese army unit on the social network Weibo - "China's Twitter" - on Friday that read "Prepare for war!"

Got 1.87 million likes.

More in Walla!

China's lesson from Russia's war in Ukraine

To the full article

• news

• world news

• Asia and the Pacific

Tags

• Nancy Pelosi

• United States

• China

• Taiwan