MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US Navy building up on its Pacific armada around Taiwan

The USS Ronald Reagan armada is performing “routine operations” in the area

The United States Government of President Joseph Biden is taking additional military precautions in case China decides to retaliate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went ahead with her plans to visit Taiwan.

The US Navy has the USS Ronald Reagan and her Carrier Strike conducting “routine operations in the South China Sea and Philippine Sea” alongside the amphibious ship USS Tripoli, according to a Pacific Fleet spokeswoman quoted by EFE.

As the relationship between China and the US becomes increasingly unpredictable, Taiwan has become by far the most dangerous source of tension and conflict.

The armada includes the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the destroyer USS Higgins and the guided missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville “on a summer patrol deployment,” while the USS Tripoli is conducting “routine operations” in the Philippine Sea.

According to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker, the USS America is en route to waters near Taiwan, but is still in the port of Sasebo in Japan.

Although Washington does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state, it has sustainedly provided the island with the means to defend itself.
Meanwhile, Pelosi explained in an editorial published by the Washington Post the rationale behind her journey. She first claimed “the trip doesn’t signal a change in US posture toward the island and urging Beijing to refrain from an aggressive response.”

Pelosi, a Democrat from California, also recalled that under then-President Jimmy Carter, “the United States Congress overwhelmingly passed ... the Taiwan Relations Act, one of the most important pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the Asia Pacific.”

That document “set out America’s commitment to a democratic Taiwan, providing the framework for an economic and diplomatic relationship that would quickly flourish into a key partnership. It fostered a deep friendship rooted in shared interests and values: self-determination and self-government, democracy and freedom, human dignity and human rights,” Pelosi went on, adding that “America must remember that vow” made in 1979.

”In recent years, Beijing has dramatically intensified tensions with Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has ramped up patrols of bombers, fighter jets and surveillance aircraft near and even over Taiwan’s air defense zone, leading the U.S. Defense Department to conclude that China’s army is 'likely preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force',” Pelosi insisted.

“America’s solidarity with Taiwan is more important today than ever — not only to the 23 million people of the island but also to millions of others oppressed and menaced by the PRC,” the Democratic congresswoman stressed.

Pelosi finally made a list of China's wrongdoings worldwide these days:

1. The brutal crackdown against Hong Kong’s political freedoms and human rights, even arresting Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, which “cast the promises of “one-country, two-systems” into the dustbin.”
2. “In Tibet, the CCP has long led a campaign to erase the Tibetan people’s language, culture, religion and identity.”
3. “In Xinjiang, Beijing is perpetrating genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities.”
4. “And throughout the mainland, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] continues to target and arrest activists, religious-freedom leaders and others who dare to defy the regime.”

In this scenario, “we cannot stand by as the CCP proceeds to threaten Taiwan — and democracy itself.”