Nancy Pelosi lands in Taiwan, defying Chinese warnings of a military response

Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit the island in 25 years.

Taiwan's Central News Agency reported that Pelosi's plane arrived at Songshan Airport at 10:43pm.

Ahead of Pelosi's visit, China vowed a military response that could cause a crisis between the world's largest economies. "Whoever plays with fire will get burned, and I will safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Ahead of the visit, traders were bracing for bad news, with stocks sliding and haven assets climbing. While there are few signs that China is planning a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, Beijing has responded to past visits by foreign officials with large sorties into Taiwan.

The presidential office in Taiwan said it suffered a 20-minute attack in the early evening hours that was 200 times worse than normal. The Foreign Ministry's website appeared to be disrupted occasionally.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it was "determined, confident and capable of ensuring national security."

Since 1997, Newt Gingrich has been the highest ranking American politician to visit Taiwan. After the last major crisis in the Taiwan Strait, President Bill Clinton sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area.

According to local media reports, Pelosi will be in Taiwan on Wednesday and will have lunch with the president. After leading a congressional delegation to Singapore and Malaysia, Pelosi stopped in Taiwan. South Korea and Japan are allies of the United States.

Beijing has rejected the argument that Congress is an independent branch of government. On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry of China slammed the visit and said it would retaliate. She left the door open for an in-person summit between Biden andXi later this year.

There is a chance of a military conflict between the US and China. The White House later clarified that Biden meant the US would provide weapons, in accordance with existing agreements, after he said in May that Washington would intervene to protect Taiwan.

The People's Liberation Army would respond aggressively to a Pelosi trip, according to Chinese media.

Washington agreed to recognize Beijing as the seat of China's government while acknowledging that there is but one China and Taiwan.

The U.S. has insisted that any unification between the island and mainland must be peaceful and supplied Taiwan with advanced weaponry while remaining ambiguous about whether U.S. forces would help defend against a Chinese attack.

Military responses by China have been prompted by visits by U.S. lawmakers. The east side of the island was visited by a US congressional delegation in November of last year.

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