Beijing to Pelosi: Your Democracy is ‘A Robe With Lice Crawling All Over It’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan lasted just 19 hours, but furious officials in Beijing are making clear that the fallout will continue for a long time to come, affecting both U.S.-China ties and relations across the Taiwan Strait.
Defying China’s warnings, Pelosi flew from Malaysia to Taiwan on a U.S. Air Force plane on Tuesday night and held warm meetings with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, lawmakers, and human rights activists, declaring U.S. support for Taiwan’s democracy to be “iron-clad.”
Her delegation then flew out early Wednesday evening, bound for Osan air base in South Korea, the second-to-last stop of a regional tour.
Pelosi left behind her a country bracing for four days of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) live-fire exercises in six specified zones surrounding the island – including in two cases zones that breach Taiwan’s 12 nautical mile (22 kilometer) territorial waters under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
In Beijing, the foreign ministry’s press briefing was dominated by the visit, and spokeswoman Hua Chunying – who is also assistant foreign minister – offered some harsh commentary in response to Pelosi’s declared support for democracy in the self-governing island that China claims as its territory.
“The kind of ‘democracy’ referred to by Pelosi is like nothing but a robe with lice crawling all over it,” she said, according to the ministry’s official translation. “It may look opulent from a distance, but couldn’t stand close scrutiny.”..............
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