Chinese President Xi Jinping asked US President Joe Biden to prevent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from visiting Taiwan earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. Although Biden insisted that Pelosi was entitled to travel as she wished, his officials were reportedly concerned about antagonizing China.
Xi and Biden spoke by phone late last month, days before Pelosi touched down in Taiwan. According to a Chinese readout of the call at the time, Xi warned Biden not to “play with fire,” as Beijing viewed the visit as emboldening Taiwanese independence.
According to the Washington Post’s sources, Xi directly asked Biden not to allow the trip to go ahead, a statement previously not acknowledged by either side.
However, Biden insisted that he “could not oblige, explaining that Congress was an independent branch of government and that Pelosi, as with other members of Congress, would make her own decisions about foreign trips,” the newspaper reported.