On Wednesday in Taipei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen as part of a visit that prompted China to conduct military exercises around the democratic island.

The trip, the highest-level visit by a U.S. official in 25 years, has drawn angry reactions from Beijing. The Chinese government declared Wednesday morning that it would stop exporting natural sand to Taiwan and ban the import of two types of fish and citrus fruit from Taiwan. These actions come after the ban on thousands of food imports, which was announced on Tuesday, prior to Pelosi’s arrival.

Tuesday night, Pelosi arrived in Taipei amid a barrage of Chinese threats. She stated in a statement following her landing that: “America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”

Pelosi visited the Legislative Yuan and met with her Taiwanese counterparts there, who were led by Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang, a lawmaker from the Democratic Progressive Party. Yu Shyi-kun, the speaker, tested positive for COVID.

Pelosi’s legislative career, which he claimed “has been intertwined” with Taiwan, was praised by Vice Speaker Tsai. Pelosi was first chosen to serve in the US. Congress in 1987, the same year Taiwan’s martial law was lifted by the country’s autocrat, President Chiang Ching-kuo.

The first-ever complete parliamentary elections in Taiwan were held in 1992, along with the country’s first direct presidential election in 1996 and a subsequent switch in the ruling parties.

“Power was first transferred between political parties in 2000 and for the third time in 2016. Taiwan has become the beacon of democracy in the world,” Vice-President Tsai said.

“We hope that the global alliance of democracies will stand with Taiwan.”

“We commend Taiwan for being one of the freest societies in the world,” Pelosi responded by telling Tsai that her tour represents the entire United States. Congress.

Pelosi noted that thirty years ago, she unfurled a statement in Tiananmen Square honoring dissidents and activists killed in the 1989 crackdown as a member of a bipartisan congressional delegation to China. She stated that the delegation was focused on human rights, unfair trade practices, and the “security issue of dangerous technologies being transferred to rogue countries.”

Taiwanese media reports that Pelosi will meet with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. later on Wednesday. President Mark Liu. She will also meet Wuerkaixi, a former student leader from Tiananmen Square, as well as Lan Wing-kee, a bookseller from Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, and Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese activist who had also been kidnapped.

Later on Wednesday, Pelosi will take a flight to South Korea to begin the next leg of her Asian tour.