US House Speaker Pelosi lands in Taiwan amid high tension from Beijing

Taipei: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday, defying stern warnings from Beijing, becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit the island in 25 years.

According to the DPA news agency, Pelosi's US Air Force-operated Boeing C-40C touched down at Taipei's Songshan Airport on Tuesday, marking the start of the third -- and the most controversial -- leg of her five-country Asia tour.

Pelosi and her delegation of Democratic lawmakers were met by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Sandra Oudkirk, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as Washington's de facto embassy. The trip has sparked outrage from Beijing, which views the autonomous island as a breakaway region that could one day be reunited with the mainland.

Behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Pelosi holds the third-highest rank in the US government.

For days, she has declined to confirm news reports that she would visit the island and Taiwan was not on her official itinerary.

People around the world monitored the progress of her flight on Tuesday, watching on flight tracking websites as her plane made its way from Kuala Lumpur toward Taipei, the DPA news agency reported.

The flight path avoided the contested South China Sea and was escorted by eight US Air Force fighter jets as well as Taiwan Air Force fighter aircraft.

Chinese SU-35 fighter jets flew into the narrow Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the mainland, shortly ahead of Pelosi's arrival, Chinese state television reported.

Beijing had warned the United States that there would be a "very serious situation and consequences" if Pelosi visited.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told the press in Beijing on Monday that such a visit would be a "blatant interference in China's internal affairs."

"The Chinese side is comprehensively prepared for all eventualities."

China's leadership regards Taiwan as part of the People's Republic and rejects official contact between its diplomatic partners and the government in Taipei.

With 23 million inhabitants, Taiwan has long considered itself independent.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has heightened fears that China could annex the democratic island republic by force. Tensions over Taiwan have not been as high since the 1990s.

Pelosi's delegation is expected to stay overnight in Taipei City`s Grand Hyatt Hotel, where protestors from the far-right and pro-China Alliance to Promote Chinese Unification had gathered. They were countered by the Taiwan State-Building Party, whose members held placards proclaiming "Democracies Strong Together".

The capital city's landmark Taipei 101 skyscraper, located near the five-star hotel, blazed "Welcome to Taiwan".

Pelosi is expected to visit Taiwan's parliament on Wednesday and meet with legislature's leader Yu Shyi-kun before holding talks with President Tsai Ing-wen.

Her schedule also includes meetings with Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese human rights activists. She is expected to leave for Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday evening.

With inputs from IANS