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China has branded a landmark visit to Taiwan by US Speaker Nancy Pelosi as "extremely dangerous," BBC reported.

It accused Ms Pelosi, the most senior US politician in 25 years to visit the island China claims as its own, of "playing with fire".

"Those who play with fire will perish by it," Beijing warned in a statement.

US national security spokesperson John Kirby said there was "no reason for this visit to become a spurring event for a crisis or conflict".

Speaking after she arrived, he reiterated to reporters that the trip was consistent with the US's long-standing policy towards China and did not violate the country's sovereignty.

As her plane touched down, Chinese state media reported that its military jets were crossing the Taiwan strait. Taiwan denied those reports at the time - but later said that more than 20 Chinese military planes had entered its air defence zone on Tuesday.

China - which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province which will one day unite with it - has previously warned that its armed forces "will not stand idly by".

Within an hour of the plane's arrival, it announced that the People's Liberation Army will conduct a series of live-fire military drills in the air and at sea around Taiwan later this week - warning ships and aircraft not to enter the affected areas.

It follows days of escalating tensions ahead of the visit, in which Chinese warplanes had already ventured out as far as the median line, the unofficial dividing line separating China and Taiwan in the waters between them.

Earlier, Ms Pelosi said her visit honoured "America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy" and did not contradict US policy.

In her statement, Ms Pelosi said: "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."

And in an article published in the Washington Post newspaper at the same time, Ms Pelosi also wrote that Taiwan's "robust democracy... is under threat".

"In the face of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation's visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom," she said, according to BBC.

While Ms Pelosi's visit had been the subject of huge international speculation for days, it had been shrouded in secrecy until the last minute.

When she set off on a tour of Asia on Sunday, there was no mention of Taiwan on her official itinerary, which included Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.

The White House has been open in its opposition to any such trip, and President Joe Biden said the military assessed it as "not a good idea".

But after Ms Pelosi landed, the White House's Mr Kirby told CNN this visit was similar to previous trips by other officials.

"There is no reason for this to erupt into conflict. There's no change to our policy. This is absolutely consistent with it."

Addressing the strong reaction from China, he said: "The United States is not going to be intimidated by threats."

There are signs that Ms Pelosi's visit is garnering bipartisan support from Republican opponents who would usually be very unlikely to count themselves among her fan base, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Washington.

The latest opposition politician to back her, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, said: "You do not want the Chinese Communist party dictating to senior American leaders where they can and cannot travel."

He added: "She's there, we're supporting the trip and we're closing ranks behind her."

China exerts international pressure on other nations to accept its "One China" principle - that there is only one Chinese nation, based in Beijing. Only 15 nations in the world have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Long-standing US policy has been to recognise the Beijing government, but also maintain "robust unofficial" relations with Taiwan. That includes selling weapons for Taiwan to defend itself.

As Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Ms Pelosi is second in line for the US presidency after the vice-president. Yet she is also a long-standing critic of Beijing.

As a congresswoman in 1991, two years after the Chinese government cracked down hard on protesters in Tiananmen Square, she visited the site of the demonstrations and unfurled a banner in memory of those who died - sparking an angry response from the government there, BBC reported.

Ms Pelosi is expected to stay overnight, Taiwanese media have reported, and meet members of the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday, as well as Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen.

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."