China announced on Friday it was canceling or suspending dialogue with the United States on a range of issues from climate change to military relations to anti-drug efforts in retaliation for a visit this week to Taiwan by the US House speaker , Nancy Pelosi. The measures, which come amid cratering relations between Beijing and Washington, are the latest in a promised series of steps aimed at punishing the US for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. China on Thursday began threatening military drills in six zones just off the coast of Taiwan, which it said would last until Sunday. Missiles were also fired over Taiwan, defense officials told state media. China usually opposes the self-governing island having its own contacts with foreign governments, but its response to Pelosi’s visit was unusually vociferous. The State Department said dialogue between US and Chinese regional commanders and defense chiefs would be cancelled, along with talks on military maritime security. Cooperation on the return of illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change will be suspended, the ministry said. What is happening in the Taiwan Straits? China’s military exercises and Nancy Pelosi’s visit explained The actions were taken because Pelosi visited Taiwan “ignoring China’s strong opposition and serious representations,” the department said in a statement. China has accused the Biden administration of attacking Chinese sovereignty, although Pelosi heads the legislative branch of government and Biden had no power to block her visit. China’s moves come ahead of a key ruling Communist Party congress later this year in which President Xi Jinping is expected to win a third five-year term as party leader. With the economy faltering, the party has stoked nationalism and launched near-daily attacks on the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who refuses to recognize Taiwan as part of China, in order to shore up public support. China said on Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships had taken part in live-fire military exercises around Taiwan over the past two days, as it announced mostly symbolic sanctions against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family for her visit to Taiwan earlier this time. week. The official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockade operations”. The military’s Eastern Theater Command also launched new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “accurately.” The Rocket Force also fired missiles over Taiwan in the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major escalation of China’s threats to attack and invade the island. The drills, which Xinhua described as being conducted on an “unprecedented scale,” are China’s most drastic response to Pelosi’s visit. The speaker is the highest-ranking US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years. Dialogue and exchanges between China and the US, particularly on military matters and economic exchanges, have generally stalled at best. Climate change and the fight against the trade in illegal drugs such as fentanyl were, however, areas where they had found common cause, and Beijing’s suspension of cooperation could have major implications for efforts to make progress on these issues. China and the United States are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 climate polluters, together producing nearly 40% of all fossil fuel emissions. Their top climate diplomats, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, have maintained a cordial relationship dating back to the Paris climate accord, which was made possible by a breakthrough negotiated between the two and others. China, urged by Kerry, pledged at last year’s UN global climate summit in Glasgow to work with the US “as a matter of urgency” to reduce climate-damaging emissions, but Kerry has been unable to persuade it to significantly accelerate moving China away from coal. On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered on Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft headed for the exercise area. Fighter jets were heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out over the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island, a popular scenic spot in Fujian province. Pelosi’s visit stirred emotions among the Chinese public, and the government’s response “makes us feel that our motherland is very strong and gives us confidence that Taiwan’s return is the irresistible trend,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang Province. China is a “strong country and will not allow anyone to encroach on its own territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student visiting the island. His mother, Zheng Zhidan, was somewhat more cautious. “We are compatriots and we hope to live in peace,” Zheng said. “We must live in peace with each other.” China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to bring it under its control have featured prominently in the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda, education system, and fully state-controlled media for more since seven decades since the sides split between citizens. war in 1949. Taiwanese overwhelmingly support maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands that the island be reunited with the communist-controlled mainland. On Friday morning, China sent warships and warplanes down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s defense ministry said, crossing what for decades was an unofficial security zone between China and Taiwan. Five of the missiles fired by China since the start of military exercises on Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile launches in China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.” Japan’s defense ministry later said it believed four more missiles fired from China’s southeast coast of Fujian flew over Taiwan. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises targeting Taiwan represent a “serious problem” that threatens regional peace and security. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China’s actions were in line with “international law and international practices,” although she did not provide details. “Regarding the Exclusive Economic Zone, China and Japan have not carried out a maritime demarcation in relevant waters, so there is no Japanese EEZ,” Hua told reporters at a daily briefing. In Tokyo, where Pelosi is wrapping up her Asia trip, she said China cannot prevent US officials from visiting Taiwan. Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the missile launches must “stop immediately.” China said it had summoned European diplomats to the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union criticizing Chinese military exercises around Taiwan. Its Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li had made “official assurances” about what it called “unwanted interference in China’s internal affairs”. Deng said China will “prevent the country from disintegrating with the utmost determination, using all means and at any cost.” The ministry said the meeting took place on Thursday night, but did not provide information on which countries were involved. Earlier on Thursday, China canceled a meeting of foreign ministers with Japan to protest the G-7’s statement that there was no justification for the drills. Both ministers attended a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia. China has touted the overseas support it received for its response to Pelosi’s visit, notably from other authoritarian states such as Russia, Syria and North Korea. China had earlier summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting Tsai and holding other public events. He traveled to South Korea and then to Japan. Both countries host US military bases and could be drawn into a conflict with Taiwan. The Chinese exercises involve troops from the navy, air force, missile force, strategic support force and logistics force, according to Xinhua. They are believed to be the largest geographically close to Taiwan and the closest – within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the island. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Friday called the drills a “significant escalation” and said he had called on Beijing to back off. US law requires the government to treat threats against Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “serious concern”. The drills echo the last major Chinese military exercises aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters in 1995 and 1996. Taiwan has put its military on alert and held civil defense drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been canceled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid Chinese drills. In the northern port of Keelung, Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning bath on Thursday, saying he was not worried. “Everybody should want money, not bullets,” Lu said. This content appears as provided to The Globe by the original wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.
