The New York Times reports:
After weeks of silence ahead of a high-stakes visit to Taiwan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was anything but understated on Wednesday during a day of high-profile meetings, in which she offered support for Taiwan and irked China.
In a pair of morning meetings that were partly broadcast online, Ms. Pelosi met with Taiwanese lawmakers and then with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, to whom she offered assurances of United States support despite threats from China.
“Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” Ms. Pelosi said. “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.”
CNN reports:
Pelosi is a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist Party. She has denounced Beijing’s human rights record, and met pro-democracy dissidents and the Dalai Lama.
In 1991, Pelosi unfurled a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters. More recently, she has voiced support for the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Pelosi and the congressional delegation left the self-governed island around 6 p.m. (local), departing from Taiwan’s Songshan airport