After Twitter blocked his account, prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin admitted that he had removed a tweet that had threatened military retaliation should American fighter jets accompany House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on any trip to Taiwan.
Pelosi, who is third in line to become president of the United States after Vice President Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, hinted on Friday that she would be traveling to Asia.
She didn’t mention Taiwan, but rumors that she would visit the Beijing-claimed, democratically run island have grown in recent days, escalating tensions beyond the Taiwan Strait.
In a phone call with Biden on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a warning, saying that Washington should uphold the one-China principle and that “those who play with fire will perish by it.” View More
On China’s microblog Weibo, Hu, the former editor-in-chief of the official tabloid Global Times, posted: “I’ve conveyed the message: if the U.S. military sends fighter jets to escort Pelosi to Taiwan, the action would elevate the vile nature of such a visit to the level of aggression.
Hu, a fiery nationalist with a sizable Twitter following, wrote that if Pelosi went to Taiwan, “Our fighter jets should deploy all obstructive tactics. I believe that shooting down Pelosi’s plane is also acceptable if those measures are still ineffective.
Hu claimed that to unlock his blocked Twitter account, he had to delete the offending tweet, which Twitter had determined required the account holder to do.
A request for comment from Reuters did not receive a response right away from Twitter.
When asked about a potential trip to the island by Pelosi on Friday, a White House national security spokesperson stated that the country had seen no indications of impending Chinese military action against Taiwan.
Washington, which does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is required by law to give the island the means to defend itself, and Beijing are at odds over U.S. officials’ visits to Taiwan.\
A U.S. aircraft carrier is currently traveling through the South China Sea as part of what the U.S. navy described as a routine patrol as part of the country’s extensive military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
