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(CNN) US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to visit Taiwan as part of her Asia tour, according to a senior Taiwanese government official and a US official, despite the ‘warnings from officials of the Biden administration, who are concerned about China’s response to such a high. – profile visit.

The stop — the first for a US House speaker in 25 years — is not currently on Pelosi’s public itinerary and comes at a time when US-China relations are already at a low point.

The Taiwanese official added that he plans to stay in Taiwan overnight. It is unclear when exactly Pelosi will land in Taipei.

The US official added that Defense Department officials are working around the clock to monitor any Chinese movements in the region and ensure a plan to keep them safe.

Pelosi arrived in Singapore on Monday for the first official leg of the tour in Asia, where she will meet with the country’s president, prime minister and other senior officials.

On Tuesday, Malaysia’s state media, Bernama, confirmed that Pelosi and a congressional delegation had arrived in the country and were expected to meet with the prime minister and the speaker of parliament.

The delegation’s itinerary includes stops in South Korea and Japan, but there has been no official mention of a visit to Taiwan.

At a regular Foreign Ministry briefing on Monday, China warned of the “glaring political impact” of Pelosi’s planned visit to the autonomous island that China claims as part of its territory and reiterated that its army “ne restera pas les bras croisés” if Beijing feels that its “sovereignty and territorial integrity” are threatened.

“We would like to tell the United States once again that China will stand firm, and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will never waver. China will take resolute responses and strong countermeasures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. he told reporters when asked about the fallout from Pelosi leading a congressional delegation to Taipei.

“As for the measures, if he dares to go, then let’s wait and see,” Zhao added.

Although China’s military did not mention Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said it would “bury incoming enemies” in a video posted online Monday showing its weapons and tactics. of combat. “Stand ready for combat command; Separate all incoming enemies,” said a message posted on Weibo.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the administration’s line that it is Pelosi’s decision if she visits, adding, “we don’t know what Speaker Pelosi intends to do.”

“Congress is an independent, co-equal branch of government,” Blinken told the United Nations on Monday afternoon. “The decision is entirely up to the Speaker.”

Blinken said such a visit has precedent, noting that past speakers and members of Congress have visited Taiwan.

“And so if the speaker decides to visit and China tries to create some sort of crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing,” Blinken said. “We are looking for them, in the event that they decide to visit, to act responsibly and not to engage in any further escalation.”

National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said earlier Monday that the Biden administration would support Pelosi on a trip to Taiwan.

“We want to make sure that when she travels overseas, she can do so safely and securely and we are going to make sure that. There is no reason for Chinese rhetoric. There is no reason for any action to be taken. it’s not uncommon for leaders of Congress to travel to Taiwan,” Kirby told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day.”

“We should not be as a country – we should not be intimidated by that rhetoric or those potential actions. This is an important journey for the speaker to be and we have to do everything we can to support him.” ” Kirby continued.

Asked if the United States was prepared for fallout with China over the visit, Kirby said that “there is no change to our policy. No change in our focus on trying to keep an Indo-Pacific free and safe and open”.

The issue of Taiwan remains one of the most controversial. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping discussed it at length in a two-hour, 17-minute phone call Thursday as tensions rose between Washington and Beijing.

“The Taiwan issue is the most sensitive and important core issue in China-US relations,” said Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang at the Aspen Security Forum in July.

While Biden has said publicly that the US military did not believe Pelosi was a good time to visit Taiwan, he stopped short of directly telling her not to go, according to two sources.

Administration officials have worked in recent weeks to warn the Speaker of the House of the risks of visiting the democratic, self-governing island of 24 million residents, including in briefings from the Pentagon and other administration officials. . But Biden didn’t believe it was his place to tell her she shouldn’t go, and has avoided commenting publicly on her trip since his initial statement on July 21.

Biden said last month that the US military opposed Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, although he has since declined to elaborate on the warnings. The White House said it’s up to the House speaker where he travels.

However, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently said he had discussed a visit to Asia with Pelosi.

The administration is taking extra care for Pelosi’s safety when she travels overseas because she is in the line of presidential succession.

Administration officials are concerned that Pelosi’s trip comes at a particularly tense time, as Xi is expected to seek an unprecedented third term at the next Chinese Communist Party congress. Chinese party officials are expected to begin laying the groundwork for that conference in the coming weeks, putting pressure on the leadership in Beijing to show strength.

Officials also believe that the Chinese leadership does not fully understand the political dynamics in the United States, leading to a misunderstanding about the meaning of Pelosi’s potential visit. Officials say China may confuse Pelosi’s visit with an official administration visit since she and Biden are both Democrats. Administration officials are concerned that China will not separate Pelosi from Biden much, if at all.

Pelosi has been a critic of the Chinese Communist Party. He met with pro-democracy dissidents and the Dalai Lama – the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who remains a thorn in the side of the Chinese government. In 1991, Pelosi unfurled a black-and-white flag in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate the victims of the 1989 massacre, which read, “To those who died for democracy.” In recent years, he has expressed support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The Chinese embassy in the United States opposed his planned trip, which was planned for April before Pelosi tested positive for Covid-19, urging members of Congress to tell the speaker not to .

“I would say there’s been a full court press by the Chinese embassy to discourage travel to Taiwan,” Washington Democratic Representative Rick Larsen, co-chairman of the US-China Congressional Task Force, told CNN. “I just don’t think it’s their job to tell us what to do. That was my message back.”

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, responded that his office is in “regular contact” with members of Congress, including Larsen.

“On the Taiwan question, we have made our stance strong and clear,” Pengyu said. “The Embassy is making every effort to prevent peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the stability of China-US relations from being damaged by the potential visit of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.”

“We hope that serious consequences could be avoided,” he added. “This is in the common interests of China and the United States.”

Many Democrats and Republicans in Congress said it was Pelosi’s right to travel to Taiwan.

“It is Speaker Pelosi’s decision alone to travel to Taiwan or not, not to any other country,” said Rep. Illinois Republican Darin LaHood, Larsen’s Republican counterpart on the US-China task force. “In our democratic system – we operate with separate but equal branches of government.”

“It is inappropriate for foreign governments, including the Chinese government, to attempt to influence the ability or right to travel for the speaker, members of Congress, or other US government officials to Taiwan or anywhere in the world” , he added.

Other members appeared to be more cautious about the diplomatically sensitive trip.

California Democratic Representative Judy Chu, the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, said she has “always supported Taiwan.”

But when asked if a trip to Taiwan now would send the wrong message, Chu said: “You can look at it in two ways. One is that relations are very close now. But on the other hand, you can say that maybe it is when Taiwan. strength and support must also be shown.”

When asked what he thought, he said, “I’ll leave it to those who have to make that decision.”

This story was updated with additional details on Monday.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong, Hannah Ritchie, Chandelis Duster and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.

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