Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) departed Taiwan late on Wednesday after a 19-hour visit that included visits with that country’s legislature and President Tsai Ing-wen – and an ongoing barrage of hateful invective from neighboring China, including live fire drills and threats to shoot down Pelosi’s plane.

Pelosi’s is the first visit by an American politician of such high rank to the country in 25 years. America does not recognize Taiwan as a country – a decision made by President Jimmy Carter to appease the Chinese Communist Party – despite its clear status as a sovereign nation independent of Beijing. The Communist Party claims Taiwan as a rogue province and dismisses Tsai’s government as an illegitimate “separatist” organization.

Beijing also does not maintain any diplomatic ties to a country that recognizes Taiwanese statehood.

Pelosi, in a Washington Post column on her visit and several statements and remarks throughout her trip, emphasized that she did not intend to change the status quo of failing to recognize Taiwan’s statehood but maintaining friendly relations between Washington and Taipei. Her stance did not stop the Communist Party from condemning Pelosi, surrounding Taiwan with its military assets, and demanding leftist President Joe Biden violate America’s separation of powers to limit Pelosi’s ability to travel.

Addressing the ongoing barrage of propaganda against herself from Beijing – which included an illustration of her in Chinese state media as a suicide bomber – Pelosi told reporters in Taipei that China’s opinion of her visit “doesn’t really matter.”

Pelosi told a Channel News Asia reporter that she did not understand why China “made a big fuss” about her, according to that outlet, but speculated it could be due to “certain insecurities on the part of the president of China as to his own political situation that he’s rattling the saber.”

“But it doesn’t really matter,” Pelosi concluded. “What matters to us is that we salute the successes of Taiwan. We work together for the security of Taiwan. And we just take great lessons from the democracy.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry published a long screed on Tuesday condemning Pelosi, Biden, and America in general for exhibiting any support for the free and democratic society in Taiwan.