US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived at pm local time via private plane at Taipei Songshan Airport, after taking off from the capital of Malaysia even as China upped the ante and threatened Washington with "very grave" consequences if the high-level visit takes place.
People cheered 'Welcome Nancy Pelosi' as the US representative arrived here on Tuesday.
This visit could significantly escalate tensions with Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory.
In Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry said the US would "pay the price" if Pelosi went to Taiwan.
"The US side will bear the responsibility and pay the price for undermining China's sovereign security interests," Assistant Foreign Minister and foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a media briefing here on Tuesday and reiterated that Beijing would take "strong measures" in response to Pelosi's visit, which will be the highest by top US official in 25 years.
Here's why China is miffed over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan
Beijing routinely protests any foreign dignitaries' visits to Taiwan, which claims its own and firmly insists all countries follow the One China policy acknowledging that the breakaway province is part of its mainland.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as an encouragement to make the island's 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.
Both China and Taiwan on Tuesday stepped up military deployments across the Taiwan Strait, the Post report said.
State-run Global Times reported that China has moved two of its aircraft carriers out from their home ports respectively ahead of Pelosi's visit. Besides the two, China recently launched a third aircraft carrier.
(With inputs from agencies)
