The Pelosi has landed

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the third-highest ranking US official, touched down in Taiwan yesterday in defiance of repeated warnings from China against her visiting the island nation, where she plans to meet with government leaders today before departing for the rest of her Asian tour.

📝 More deets… Upon her arrival, The Washington Post published an op-ed written by Pelosi calling the visit “an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”

• In one story divided, the next unified: her trip appears to have bipartisan support among US lawmakers, after 26 Republican senators – including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – published a joint statement to that effect yesterday.

🇨🇳 Meanwhile, in China: Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that’ll eventually be under its control again, vowed to surround the self-governing island with live-fire military drills over the next few days, calling Pelosi’s visit “a major political provocation.”

• Taiwan also dominated online conversation on the mainland yesterday. The top 10 trending topics on Weibo, one of China’s largest social-media platforms, were entirely about Pelosi’s visit and Beijing’s response.

🇹🇼 Same same, but different: Pelosi is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) did so during the Clinton administration in 1997.

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