China May Declare No-Fly Zone Over Taiwan And Fly Over The Island If Pelosi Visits

China's state-run news said the PLA should send warplanes over the island, suggesting that the planes should accompany Pelosi's plane at an appropriate distance, and skim over her landing site, and then fly over the island

By Donald Standeford, SJ Founder/Publisher
July 22, 2022 08:00 am UTC
Modified: July 22, 2022 08:00 am

China might try to impose a no-fly zone over the island of Taiwan ahead of Nancy Pelosi's visit in order to prevent the U.S. speaker of the House from being successful, a move that would be unprecedented.

After China's strong response toward the possibility of Pelosi visiting the island, Biden announced that "The military thinks it's not a good idea right now, but I don't know what the status of it is," to which China's state-run media replied with "message of warning received", referring to Biden's remark.

China's state-run media the Global Times has said that the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft will "accompany" the flight that Pelosi would be in to visit Taiwan.

A report by CNN which cited unnamed U.S. officials said that if China carried out these actions, it could "potentially raise tensions even further in the region."

The Global Times had said that a PLA warplane could 'accompany' Pelosi's plane if she visits Taiwan after citing multiple multiple reports from the Financial Times indicating that she would be visiting the island.

It said that "If Pelosi, a fellow Democrat with US President Joe Biden, visits Taiwan, no one will believe it is because Biden "cannot control her". People are more likely to believe that her visit is part of Washington's tactic of "good cop/bad cop."

The Global Times report said that as Speaker of the House, Pelosi stands as second in line for presidential succession, citing the United States constitution. Global Times then posited that her visit to Taiwan would be not only an "escalation" of support from the United States for "Taiwan Independence," but also a "major incident".

The Global Times went on to say that the United States will not be reasonable regarding the "Taiwan question" and that the only way for China to respond to Washington's "provocation" is to use resolute countermeasures to "make it clear the cost of playing the Taiwan card", which, it said is the only language the U.S. understands.

It then said that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) should send warplanes over the island, suggesting that the planes should accompany Pelosi's plane at an "appropriate distance", after which enter the island at the same time that her aircraft enters it, and "skim over her landing site, and then fly over the island and return to the Chinese mainland."

China's state media then said that Pelosi would be to thank for creating the "opportunity" for the PLA warplanes to fly over the island, "opening up a whole new space for PLA warplanes to exercise sovereignty over the Taiwan island."

It then said that the Chinese mainland "must be brave enough to take this step of flying warplanes over the island, which "unlike warplanes flight around Taiwan, can truly reflect China's sovereignty over the territory, and is more substantial than any visit to Taiwan by senior foreign officials."

The Global Times went on to say that although using Pelosi's visit to Taiwan would 'complete this leap' is most likely to make it a peaceful transition, China "must be fully prepared for military confrontation", but added that they have "no intention" of seeing war break out in the Taiwan Straits right now, but are "undoubtedly the party that is least afraid of a war in the Straits breaking out right now".

The report said that PLA warplanes will "sooner or later" be flying over Taiwan and that if the Taiwan military "dare" to fire at the PLA warplanes, the response by the Chinese military would be "a resolute action of shooting down the Taiwanese warplanes or striking its military bases."

It concluded that if the United States and the island of Taiwan want an all-out war, then it will be time to "liberate" Taiwan, adding "let Pelosi and the Biden administration" and the "Taiwan authorities" make their choice.