VIDEO: Pelosi Refuses to Confirm Possible Taiwan Stop, Calling Asia Tour Schedule 'a Security Issue'

"I don't ever talk about my travel because, as some of you know, it's a security issue,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday. “It's a security issue for every member of Congress traveling, especially abroad. But for the Speaker, it is an additional security issue, and for those traveling with me, not just members, but staff, et cetera."

Bloomberg first reported the story on Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the plans. She will reportedly visit Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, with Taiwan listed as a “tentative” option. Which country she will visit first remains unclear. Many of the nations are key US allies in the US' push to encircle China, while others Washington hopes to woo away from Beijing by casting China as a threat to them.

Pelosi has invited several other senior US lawmakers to join her on the trip, but while some have declined, the status of others is unknown.

A day prior, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Joe Biden that "one who plays with fire will certainly burn himself” - undoubtedly a warning to Washington not to test China's patience by violating Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, a territory Beijing sees as a Chinese province in rebellion. The US acceded to that position in 1979, when it switched its recognition of the legitimate Chinese government from Taipei to Beijing.

Biden has tried to dissuade Pelosi from making the trip, as have senior Pentagon leaders. Pelosi and other lawmakers have countered, arguing it is undemocratic for anyone - Chinese or American - to ask her not to visit Taiwan. Republicans, typically her political adversaries, have rallied behind the trip.

'Strategic Ambiguity'

If the House speaker does go, she will be the highest-ranking American to make the trip in 25 years, since then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich went to Taiwan in 1997. On that trip, Gingrich met with then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui and said to China: “We want you to understand, we will defend Taiwan. Period.''

That statement was a violation of the US’ longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the question of defending Taiwan from Mainland China. The policy is calculated to maintain the status quo, which is that Taiwan neither feels confident enough to declare independence nor grows close enough to China to reunite with it. Since Biden became president in 2021, he has tripped several times over the same rule, and his leading diplomats have had to walk back his claims.

In 1997, China was focused on the imminent reincorporation of Hong Kong into the country, having been a British colony since it was seized as a war prize in 1840. It also came on the heels of the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, which began when Lee was granted a visa to visit the United States and China responded with missile and amphibious assault drills near Taiwan.

In response, the US dispatched two carrier battle groups and an amphibious assault ship - another type of aircraft carrier - and numerous US warships sailed directly through the Taiwan Strait, flouting Chinese warnings against it. Beijing was forced to back down and Lee was boosted in the polls, winning a narrow majority in Taiwan’s first democratic elections in 1996. The situation led to major reforms in the People’s Liberation Army and the acquisition of new weapons capable of challenging the massive US Navy.

The government in Taiwan is all that remains of the republican government that ruled all of China between 1912 and 1949. While the communist Red Army was victorious on the mainland and founded the People’s Republic of China, it was unable to cross the Taiwan Strait, and a stalemate ensued. Since then, all but a handful of nations have switched their recognition of the legitimate Chinese government from Taipei to Beijing, including the United States in 1979.