In response for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this week, China says it is canceling or halting dialogue with the U.S. on topics ranging from climate change to military relations and anti-drug initiatives. Sanctions were also levied on her by Beijing.
The moves pledged to punish Washington for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory to be annexed, if necessary, by force, are the latest in a line of measures that were outlined on Friday. China opposes the self-governing island’s interactions with other nations.
According to Ramy Inocencio of CBS News, China conducted its largest live-fire military drills against Taiwan ever yesterday by sending naval ships and bombers into the Taiwan Strait.
According to Agence France-Presse, Pelosi’s “disregard of China’s strong opposition and severe protestations” has led China to “halt the China-US climate change discussions,” cancel two security meetings, and postpone a call between military chiefs.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, “joint blockade operations” were conducted in six zones off the coast of Taiwan using fighters, bombers, destroyers, and frigates. China’s People’s Liberation Army reportedly deployed more than 100 warplanes, ten warships, and a nuclear-powered submarine on Thursday, according to official media.
Prior to the announcement of the penalties against Pelosi, she assured Japanese media that the Chinese government would not impose restrictions on who could visit the island.
“They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places. But they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” Pelosi said.
According to Agence France-Presse, Pelosi’s “disregard of China’s strong opposition and severe protestations” has led China to “halt the China-US climate change discussions,” cancel two security meetings, and postpone a call between military chiefs.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, “joint blockade operations” were conducted in six zones off the coast of Taiwan using fighters, bombers, destroyers, and frigates. China’s People’s Liberation Army reportedly deployed more than 100 warplanes, ten warships, and a nuclear-powered submarine on Thursday, according to official media.
Prior to the announcement of the penalties against Pelosi, she assured Japanese media that the Chinese government would not impose restrictions on who could visit the island.
According to Xinhua, “combined obstruction operations” were conducted in the six zones using fighters, bombers, destroyers, and frigates.
The military’s Eastern Theater Command also launched updated missiles that it claimed “struck with accuracy” unnamed targets in the Taiwan Strait. In a significant upping of China’s threats to takeover the island, military personnel told state media that those included rockets fired across Taiwan into the Pacific.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia on Friday that China’s military drills targeting Taiwan, which include missiles fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, represent a “significant escalation” and that he has urged Beijing to back down.
The “one-China” position, which recognizes the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei, was cited by Blinken as the reason why Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not signify a change in American policy. He also accused China of using the visit as a “pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”
He claimed that as a result of the circumstance, there was “vigorous communication” at the Phnom Penh East Asia Summit talks, which he and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended alongside the ASEAN countries, Russia, and others.
He continued, “I reiterated the points that we made publicly as well as directly to Chinese counterparts in recent days about the fact that they should not use the visit as a pretext for war, escalation, or for provocative actions, that there is no possible justification for what they’ve done, and that we urge them to cease these actions.
Despite not having a one-on-one discussion with Wang, Blinken claimed to have discussed the potential of a Pelosi visit to Taiwan with the Chinese foreign minister at meetings in Bali and had made the U.S. position clear.
Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years, was given a jubilant greeting.
Blinken stated that the U.S. would maintain its “commitment to the security of our allies in the region” despite China’s combative response to the visit. The Defense Department had also instructed the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group to “remain on station in the general area to monitor the situation,” he added.
“We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. “We’ll continue to conduct standard air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait, consistent with our long-standing approach to working with allies and partners to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight.”