Nancy Pelosi said she has always felt ‘connected’ to China because she was told as a child that if she dug a hole deep enough she would reach the Asian country on the other side of the world.
‘When I was a little girl, I was told when at the beach, that if I dug a hole deep enough we would reach China,’ the House Speaker said Friday.
‘So, we’ve always felt a connection there,’ Pelosi added during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.
The comment came in response to a very serious question about whether Pelosi thinks the U.S.-Chinese relationship will be affected by the days of intense military drills in the region following her trip to Taiwan.
It is not immediately clear whether Pelosi was joking in the clip that circulated on social media over the weekend.
Pelosi was standing beside other Democratic representatives part of the delegation visiting Asia, which included a stop in Taiwan to the ire of China, when she made the comments.
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In order to actually ‘dig a hole to China’, however, one would need to start their journey in Chile or Argentina, which is the location of the opposite point on the Earth from the large Asian nation.
China suggested Sunday that the U.S. is trying to claim Taiwan as Beijing’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted the self-governed island nation is still part of Chinese territory.
Wang said during a trip to Bangladesh that Taiwan is not part of the United States in the latest diplomatic escalation following Pelosi’s visit.
He added that the U.S. is engaged in ‘sophistry’, or fallacious and deceiving arguments, when it comes to intentions regarding Taiwan.
Wang insisted that China’s actions when it comes to the island are appropriate and legal and made in attempts to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Beijing raged at Pelosi’s Tuesday trip to Taiwan, ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defense.
On Friday, China also imposed sanctions on the California Democrat following her visit to Taiwan.
‘In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,’ a China foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
It added: ‘In response to Pelosi’s egregious provocation, China decides to adopt sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members in accordance with relevant laws of the People’s Republic of China.’
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