WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday decried Beijing’s rhetoric over an expected visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, vowing the United States “will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling” and has no interest in increasing tensions with China.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby underscored that the decision on whether to visit the self-ruled island that China claims as its own was ultimately Pelosi’s. He noted that members of Congress have routinely visited Taiwan over the years.

Kirby said administration officials are concerned that Beijing could use the visit as an excuse to take provocative retaliatory steps, including military action such as firing missiles in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan, flying sorties into Taiwan’s airspace and carrying out large-scale naval exercises in the strait.

“Put simply, there is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with long-standing U.S. policy into some sort of crisis or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby said.

The Biden administration pushed back on Beijing as Pelosi held talks with officials in Singapore on Monday at the start of her Asian tour.

While there have been no official announcements, local media in Taiwan reported that Pelosi will arrive Tuesday night, making her the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to visit in more than 25 years.

Talk of such a visit is sparking fury in Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its own territory.

“If Pelosi insists on visiting Taiwan, China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also warned the U.S. against meddling in Beijing’s dealings with the island in a phone call last week with President Joe Biden.

China has been ratcheting up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. Threats of retaliation for a visit by Pelosi have driven concerns of a new crisis in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the two sides, that could roil global markets and supply chains.

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decadesold 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, would be the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

On Monday, Pelosi met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, President Halimah Yacob and other Cabinet members.

Pelosi has said she is visiting Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan in a tour to discuss trade, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, security and “democratic governance.”