China sanctions US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

BEIJING (AP) — China has announced unspecified sanctions on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her visit earlier this week to Taiwan. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Friday that Pelosi had disregarded China’s concerns and resolute opposition to her visit to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims. Pelosi was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the self-governing island in 25 years. China claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes it having its own engagements with foreign governments. The Chinese statement said Pelosi’s visit undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It said that sanctions would be imposed on Pelosi and her immediate family but didn’t say what they would be. Such sanctions are generally mostly symbolic in nature.