Anita Anand made the comments on CBC radio’s The House this weekend, and the remarks came a day after Beijing announced it was ending all contact with the United States on major issues — including climate cooperation. “We are concerned about China’s threatening actions,” Anand said in an interview. “There is no justification for using a visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Straits.” Beijing’s response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has gone beyond simple retaliation, he added. “It is routine for lawmakers from our countries to travel internationally, and China’s escalating response only risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region,” Anand said. “We call on China not to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the region and resolve cross-strait disputes through peaceful means.” That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon. Defense Minister Anita Anand urges China to resolve its Taiwan-related issues peacefully. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press) In recent days, China has sent more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships in a show of force off Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory. The country’s strategic missile forces also fired ballistic missiles over the island and into the Pacific Ocean in a further show of anger. Officials in Beijing said Friday they also plan to sanction Pelosi personally. Jonathan Berkshire Miller, an Asia-Pacific expert at the Ottawa-based MacDonald-Laurier Institute, said he believes China’s reaction has been overblown, but the message is intended for both domestic audiences and the international community. The country’s Communist Party will hold a major congress this fall, and President Xi Jinping cannot afford to appear weak toward Taiwan — a thought he says should have been on the minds of senior U.S. officials beforehand. “I think the United States … was reading the tea leaves in advance,” Miller said “You could see the Biden administration … first privately and then publicly, warning about such a visit.” Even so, Miller said, it is not the first time a US House speaker has visited the island and that Beijing may have been looking for a pretext to change the status quo in the region. Beyond Taiwan, five of the missiles fired by China landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands. That, Miller said, was a message to all US allies in the region.
China summons Canadian diplomat to Beijing
China’s foreign ministry this week summoned Canada’s top diplomat in Beijing — chargé d’affaires Jim Nickell — for a dressing down after G7 foreign ministers condemned the Chinese actions. Speaking on Friday, China’s vice foreign minister urged Canada to “immediately correct its mistakes” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly would not say whether Ottawa had summoned China’s ambassador to provide a response on behalf of Beijing. Anand said the government is fully involved in the simmering crisis. “We have our eyes wide open in China,” Anand said. “We will continue to work on the safety and security of this area.” Canada has two frigates — HMCS Winnipeg and HMCS Vancouver — operating with allies in the Pacific. Both warships are headed to Asia in a pre-planned deployment after taking part in a large-scale US-led military exercise near Hawaii. China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to reclaim the island has been a recurring refrain of the ruling Communist Party. But the statements have become stricter in recent years. Taiwan broke away from the mainland at the end of the country’s civil war in 1949. Residents in Taiwan overwhelmingly support the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands for reunification.
