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A richer, stronger China warns Pelosi not to visit Taiwan
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A Cheng Kung class frigate fires an anti air missile as part of a navy demonstration in Taiwan's annual Han Kuang exercises off the island's eastern coast near the city of Yilan, Taiwan on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. The Taiwanese capital Taipei staged a civil defense drill Monday and President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday attended the annual Han Kuang military exercises, although there was no direct connection with tensions over a possible visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. - photo by AP Photo/Huizhong Wu
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing grumbled but swallowed its irritation in 1997 when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by the mainland’s ruling Communist Party as its own territory. China had other priorities. President Jiang Zemin’s government was preparing to celebrate Hong Kong’s return and wanted to lock in Beijing’s emergence from diplomatic isolation after its 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.