The measures announced Friday are the latest in a promised series of steps aimed at punishing Washington for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its territory to annex by force if necessary. China opposes the self-governing island having its own engagements with foreign governments. For the second day in a row, China sent warplanes and navy ships to the Taiwan Strait as part of the largest live-fire military drills against Taiwan, CBS News’ Ramy Inocencio reports. China will “suspend China-US climate change talks” and cancel two security meetings and a call between military leaders due to Pelosi’s “ignorance of China’s strong opposition and strict representatives”, the Chinese ministry said on Friday of Foreign Affairs, according to the French Agency. Press. The official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were used in what it called “joint blockade operations” in six zones off Taiwan’s coast. On Thursday, state media reported that China’s People’s Liberation Army had deployed more than 100 warplanes, 10 warships and a nuclear-powered submarine. Before the sanctions against Pelosi were announced, she told reporters in Japan that the Chinese government would not dictate who could travel to the island. “They may try to prevent Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places. But they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us from traveling there,” Pelosi said. He later added, “We will not allow them to isolate Taiwan. They don’t schedule our trips. The Chinese government doesn’t do that.”
After China’s actions overnight, the White House summoned Chinese ambassador Qin Gang to make clear “that Beijing’s actions are of concern to Taiwan, us and our partners around the world,” said the strategic communications coordinator. of the National Security Council, John Kirby. Friday statement.
“We condemned the DPRK’s military actions, which are irresponsible, contrary to our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability beyond the Taiwan Straits,” Kirby said. He added that the White House has made it clear that “nothing has changed about our one China policy” and that the U.S. “is prepared for whatever Beijing chooses to do. We will not seek and do not want a crisis.” “At the same time, we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and skies of the Western Pacific, in accordance with international law, as we have done for decades – supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kirby added. Pelosi is the highest-ranking sitting US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, since Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997, Inocencio reports. This week’s military exercises are seen by experts as a test run of a possible future invasion of Taiwan, with China encircling the island with precision-guided missiles in six areas around the coast, Inocencio says. Xinhua reported on Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockade operations” in the six zones. The military’s Eastern Theater Command also launched new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “accurately.” These included missiles fired over Taiwan in the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major escalation of Chinese threats to annex the island. A look at the fallout from Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan 06:02 On the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that China’s military exercises targeting Taiwan, including missiles fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, represent a “significant escalation” that prompted Beijing to back down. Blinken said Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not represent a change in US policy – a “one China” position of recognizing the government in Beijing while allowing informal relations and defense ties with Taipei – accusing China of using the visit as “a pretext for increasing provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.” He said the situation led to a “robust communication” during East Asia summits in Phnom Penh, attended by both himself and and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi along with ASEAN nations, Russia and others. “I reiterated the points we have made publicly and directly to Chinese counterparts in recent days that they should not use the visit as a pretext for war , escalation, for provocative actions, that there is no possible justification for what they have done and we urge them to stop these actions,” he said. Blinken did not sit down one-on-one with Wang, but said he had already spoken with the Chinese foreign minister about the possibility of Pelosi visiting Taiwan before it took place during meetings in Bali, and had made the US position clear. Pelosi was met with euphoria as the first US House speaker and high-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years. Despite the aggressive Chinese response to the visit, Blinken said the US also would not change its “commitment to the security of our allies in the region” and that the Defense Department had instructed the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group to “remain on station in general space to monitor the situation’. “We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. “We will continue to conduct routine air and sea crossings through the Taiwan Strait, in line with our longstanding approach of working with allies and partners to maintain freedom of navigation and overflight.” Haley Ott and Sara Cook contributed to this report.