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US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced that it would conduct military maneuvers in retaliation for her presence, Associated Press reported.

Pelosi flew in aboard a US Air Force passenger jet and was greeted on the tarmac at Taipei’s international airport by Taiwan’s foreign minister and other Taiwanese and American officials. She posed for photos before her motorcade whisked her unseen into the parking garage of a hotel.

Her visit ratcheted up tension between China and the United States because China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and it views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island’s sovereignty.

The Biden administration, and Pelosi, say the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

The speaker framed the trip as part of a broader mission at a time when “the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.” Her visit comes after she led a congressional delegation to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the spring, and it serves as a capstone to her many years of promoting democracy abroad.

“We must stand by Taiwan,” she said in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on her arrival in Taiwan. She cited the commitment that the US made to a democratic Taiwan under a 1979 law.

“It is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats,” she wrote.

Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949, but China claims the island as its own territory and has not ruled out using military force to take it.

The Biden administration did not explicitly urge Pelosi to call off her plans. It repeatedly and publicly assured Beijing that the visit did not signal any change in US policy toward Taiwan.

Soon after Pelosi’s arrival, China announced a series of military operations and drills, which followed promises of “resolute and strong measures” if Pelosi went through with her visit, according to Associated Press.

The People’s Liberation Army said the maneuvers would take place in the waters and skies near Taiwan and include the firing of long-range ammunition in the Taiwan Strait.

“This action is a solemn deterrent against the recent major escalation of the negative actions of the United States on the Taiwan issue, and a serious warning to the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces seeking ‘independence.’”

China’s official Xinhua News said the army planned to conduct live-fire drills from Aug. 4 to Aug. 7 across multiple locations. An image released by the news agency indicated that the drills were to take place in six different areas in the waters surrounding Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington’s betrayal “on the Taiwan issue is bankrupting its national credibility.”

“Some American politicians are playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan,” Wang said in a statement that referred to the U.S. as “the world’s biggest saboteur of peace.”

Back in the United States, 26 Republican lawmakers issued a statement of rare bipartisan support for the Democratic speaker. The statement called trips by members of Congress to Taiwan routine.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell backed Pelosi’s visit as a display of support for Taiwan’s democracy and said any allegations that her itinerary was provocative were “utterly absurd.”

“I believe she has every right to go,” McConnell said in a Senate speech.

Senators are considering legislation to bolster Taiwan’s defense as direct response to China’s rhetoric. The Taiwan Policy Act, which has support from both parties, will be discussed Wednesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The package would bolster Taiwan’s defense capabilities with nearly $4.5 billion in security assistance over the next four years and provide other support for Taiwan’s democratic government and civil society. The measure would also designate Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally,” which opens the door to more security and trade benefits.

Backers call it the most comprehensive restructuring of US policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, Associated Press reported.

Pelosi’s trip was not officially announced ahead of time.

Barricades were erected outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei. Journalists and onlookers thronged the streets just outside and pressed against the hotel’s lobby windows as they awaited Pelosi’s motorcade. Two buildings in the capital lit up LED displays with words of welcome, including the iconic Taipei 101 building, which said “Welcome to Taiwan, Speaker Pelosi.”

China has stepped up overflights and other provocative moves toward Taiwan and neighboring territory in recent years, asserting broad claims of its rights around the region.

China’s military threats have driven concerns about a new crisis in the 100-mile-wide (140-kilometer) Taiwan Strait that could roil global markets and supply chains.

The White House insisted that China had no valid cause for anger.

“The United States will not seek, and does not want, a crisis,” John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told a White House briefing Tuesday. “At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling.”

U.S. officials have said the American military will increase its movements in the Indo-Pacific region during Pelosi’s visit. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group were in the Philippine Sea on Monday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The Reagan, the cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins left Singapore after a port visit and moved north to their home port in Japan.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday that China had sent 21 planes flying toward Taiwan, 18 of them fighter jets. The rest included an early warning plane and an electronic warfare plane.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, is the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

Pelosi’s aircraft, an Air Force version of the Boeing 737, took a roundabout route, flying east over Indonesia rather than directly over the South China Sea, according to Associated Press.

The speaker has long challenged China on human rights, including traveling to Tiananmen Square in 1991, two years after China crushed a wave of democracy protests.

In 2009, she hand-delivered a letter to then-President Hu Jintao calling for the release of political prisoners. She had sought to visit Taiwan’s island democracy earlier this year before testing positive for COVID-19.

China has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. China cut off all contact with Taiwan’s government in 2016 after President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse its claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation, with the communist regime in Beijing being the sole legitimate government.

Pelosi kicked off her Asian tour Monday in Singapore. She is to travel to Japan and South Korea later this week.

CPN-UML lawmaker Bishal Bhattara has demanded that the government withdraw the arrest warrant issued against Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Netra Bikram Chand.

Speaking at a meeting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, lawmaker Bhattarai urged the government to withdraw the arrest warrant issued against Chand among other leaders of his party immediately.

Saying that the Chand group has already chosen a path of Nepali politics in a peaceful way, the government should encourage Chand among other leaders instead of taking action against them.

“We have heard that the government has sent a letter to take action against Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Chand among other leaders of his party,” he said, adding, “If the news in the media is correct, the government should immediately roll back its decision.”

The then KP Sharma Oli-led government had brought the Chand group, which had once adopted violent means to get their demands addressed, into mainstream politics by forging a three-point agreement.

Instead of giving continuity to the works of the Oli government, the coalition government has been compelling the group to choose the path of violence again, he said.

The White House has warned that China may respond to Nancy Pelosi's mooted visit to Taiwan with military provocations, BBC reported.

This could include firing missiles near Taiwan, or large-scale air or naval activities, spokesman John Kirby said.

Mrs Pelosi, the US House of Representatives Speaker, is on a tour of Asia.

Taiwanese and US media outlets say she plans to visit Taipei, but this has not been confirmed by the US government. 

Taiwan is a self-ruled island, but claimed by China, which sees it as a breakaway province - Beijing has warned of "serious consequences" if Mrs Pelosi goes there.

While the US maintains what it calls a "robust, unofficial relationship" with Taiwan, it has formal diplomatic ties with China, and not Taiwan. 

On Monday, China's United Nations envoy Zhang Jun warned the visit would undermine relations between Beijing and Washington, Reuters news agency reported.

There is strong bipartisan support for Taiwan among the American public and in the US Congress. And Mrs Pelosi, a senior figure in the Democratic Party, has long been a vocal critic of the Chinese leadership, denouncing its human rights record. She has previously met pro-democracy dissidents and visited Tiananmen Square to commemorate victims of the 1989 massacre, according to BBC.

The speaker began her tour of Asia on Sunday, with stops scheduled in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

She originally planned to visit Taiwan in April, but postponed the trip after she tested positive for Covid-19.

Earlier this month Mrs Pelosi said it was "important for us to show support for Taiwan".

President Joe Biden has said the US military believes a Pelosi visit to Taiwan is "not a good idea right now". 

On Monday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that China's escalations could include making "spurious legal claims" in the days to come, for example by claiming that the Taiwan Strait is not an international waterway.

He said other signs indicate that Beijing may send flights towards the island, as part of a planned incursion into Taiwan's airspace.

Mr Kirby pointed out that Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had visited Taiwan in 1997, and that other US lawmakers visited Taiwan earlier this year. 

"Nothing has changed. There is no drama to talk to. It is not without precedent for a Speaker of the House to go to Taiwan," he said, adding that Mrs Pelosi is travelling on US military planes during her Asian tour.

Speaking at the United Nations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to be measured in the event that Mrs Pelosi does visit.

"If the speaker does decide to visit, and China tries to create some kind of crisis or otherwise escalate tensions, that would be entirely on Beijing," he told reporters after nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York, BBC reported.

"We are looking for them - in the event she decides to visit - to act responsibly and not to engage in any escalation going forward."

The US has killed the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a drone strike in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden has confirmed, BBC reported.

He was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday. 

Mr Biden said Zawahiri had "carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens".

"Now justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more," he added.

Officials said Zawahiri was on the balcony of a safe house when the drone fired two missiles at him.

Other family members were present, but they were unharmed and only Zawahiri was killed, they added.

Mr Biden said he had given the final approval for the "precision strike" on the 71-year-old al-Qaeda leader after months of planning.

Zawahiri took over al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. He and Bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks together and he was one of the US's "most wanted terrorists".

His killing will bring closure to families of the victims of the 2001 attacks, Mr Biden said.

"No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out," said Mr Biden, adding that "we shall never waver from defending our nation and its people".

Mr Biden said Zawahiri had also masterminded other acts of violence, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole naval destroyer in Aden in October 2000 which killed 17 US sailors, according to BBC.

A Taliban spokesman described the US operation as a clear violation of international principles.

"Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan and the region," the spokesman added.

However, US officials maintained that the operation had a legal basis, BBC reported.