TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China lodged eight protests following then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns revealed in a Financial Times interview published on Friday (June 14). 

Burns said he was summoned to the Chinese foreign ministry on Aug. 2, 2022, at 10:45 p.m.—just one minute before Pelosi landed in Taipei. Senior Chinese diplomat Xie Feng (謝鋒) proceeded to protest to Burns for three hours about the visit. 

The ambassador was summoned to the Chinese foreign ministry eight times to hear China’s objections to Pelosi’s visit, with each meeting lasting between two to four hours. “They protested strenuously and I defended Pelosi’s right to visit Taiwan as the head of a coequal branch of the US government,” Burns said.

On bilateral relations, the ambassador said things are “fairly normal compared to two years ago.” Trips by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials have helped thaw tensions, he said. 

Military exchanges have resumed and the two countries have partnered on artificial intelligence and combatting fentanyl production and climate change. 

Despite gradually warming diplomatic relations, people-to-people ties have not improved since the pandemic. There were originally 345 weekly flights between China and the U.S. before COVID. Now, there are fewer than 100.

Meanwhile, there are only 800 students from the U.S. in China—a far cry from the 15,000 in 2020.