Ljubljana - The newspaper Dnevnik comments on the trip by Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which has stirred disapproval in China, with Chinese President Xi Jinping warning that the US should not be playing with fire.

Under the headline Flexing Muscles over Taiwan, the paper says China has always been sensitive about other countries' attitudes toward Taiwan. But this move comes amid a busy time at home, as Xi is set to get a third term in office and does not want to appear weak.

Meanwhile, Pelosi has her own agenda. She visited Beijing two years after the student massacre in Tiananmen Square, unfurling a banner that read "to those who died for democracy in China", triggering a response from the police.

She has remained a hawk in the China policy of the US and a supporter of Taiwan. It seems that the objective of her visit is to make a new mark on this side of her political career.

The White House has found itself in the role of a peacemaker between Beijing and Pelosi. The latter can freely decide about her trips, being the representative of a separate branch of power, but the Biden administration has hinted to her to postpone the visit to a calmer period, while also assuring Beijing that the US respected the One China policy.

The situation is reducing manoeuvring space for both countries and does not give much hope that such unnecessary situations will be avoided or at least fixed quickly in the future, when there will only be more such clashes, "including over Taiwan, as the island is likely the next big issue for Beijing after having rearranged Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang," the paper says.