Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature In response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Beijing on Friday canceled efforts to keep communication channels open between Chinese and US military commanders. It is feared that this increases the risk of accidental escalation of tensions. Reuters published some analysis on this: Christopher Twomey, a security fellow at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, told Reuters the disruption of communications links was worrying as he believed it was the beginning of a new crisis in Taiwan. “This is exactly the time when you would like to have more opportunities to talk to the other side. … The loss of these channels significantly reduces the ability of both sides to withdraw military forces as various exercises and operations continue.” As Chinese warships, fighter jets and drones maneuver around Taiwan, at least four powerful US ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam, are east of Taiwan, the Reuters. Bonnie Glaser, a Washington-based security analyst at the United States’ German Marshall Fund, said, overall, the prospects were “extremely low for holding talks on risk reduction measures or stability.” Over time, he said he expected the specific talks that broke off this week to resume, but “right now, China needs to show toughness and determination.” A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chinese officials did not return calls from senior Pentagon officials this week, but it was believed that China was showing displeasure over Pelosi’s trip rather than the cutting of the channel between senior defense officials. including US Defense. Secretary Lloyd Austin. Austin pushed for improved communication between the rival powers when he met with Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue security meeting in Singapore in June. Both Asian and Western diplomats said US military chiefs had been pushing for more frequent theater-level command talks for some time, given China’s growing deployments across Asia, where the US navy has traditionally been the dominant force. The Pentagon said Friday that China is overreacting and the U.S. remains open to building crisis communications mechanisms.
Taiwan’s top rocket maker found dead in hotel
The deputy head of Taiwan’s defense ministry’s research and development unit was found dead in a hotel in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, according to the official Central News Agency. Ou Yang Li-hsing, deputy head of the military’s Chung-Shan National Institute of Science and Technology, was 57 years old. The cause of his death is unknown, CNA reported. Ou Yang, who was in charge of various rocket production projects, was on a business trip to Pingtung. The military agency is working to more than double its annual missile production capacity to nearly 500 this year as the island bolsters its combat power amid what it sees as a growing military threat from China, according to Reuters. Updated at 06.40 BST Agence France-Presse reports a few more lines from North Korea’s comments on Pelosi’s trip to Asia. He visited Seoul and the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, or Joint Security Area between the two Koreas, earlier this week. Pelosi and her South Korean counterpart, National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, called for “strong and comprehensive deterrence against North Korea” and pledged to support Washington and Seoul’s efforts to achieve denuclearization of Pyongyang. The North denounced Pelosi on Saturday over her talks with Kim and her visit to the JSA and Taiwan, AFP reports: In addition to the deterrence talks, Pelosi “even appeared at the Panmunjom Joint Security Area, completely betraying the vision of the current US administration’s hostile policy towards the DPRK,” said Jo Yong-sam, a North Korean foreign official. ministry, using the North’s official name. “The US is just adding fuel to the fire,” Joe added in a statement carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. China is the North’s key ally and trading partner, and Pyongyang also criticized Pelosi for her visit to Taiwan. “Pelosi, the worst destroyer of international peace and stability … has drawn the ire of the Chinese people for her recent provocation on Taiwan,” the State Department’s Jo said in the statement. “The US will have to pay dearly for all the sources of trouble it has caused wherever it has gone.” The rebuke from the North comes about a week after Kim Jong Un said his country is “ready to mobilize” the nuclear deterrent in any future military conflict with the US and Seoul. North Korea has conducted a record number of weapons tests so far this year, including the launch of a full-range intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time since 2017. Some further details from Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense on what it describes here as a “possible simulated attack”. Taiwan’s military used patrolling naval vessels and land-based missiles to deal with the situation, it says. Multiple PLA vessels have been spotted around the Taiwan Straits, some have crossed the median line. Possible simulated attack on HVA. #ROCArmedForces have used alert broadcasts, CAP aircraft, naval ship patrol and land-based missile systems in response to this situation. — Ministry of National Defence, ROC 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) August 6, 2022
Chinese aircraft and ships conducted simulated attack drills
Taiwan’s defense ministry said some Chinese aircraft and ships conducted simulated attack drills toward Taiwan’s main island on Saturday, Reuters senior Taipei correspondent Yimu Li tweeted. Several batches of Chinese aircraft and ships were spotted in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday morning, some of which crossed the median line, they said. #TAIWAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE: SOME OF CHINESE AIRCRAFT AND SHIPS CARRIED OUT SIMULATED ATTACK EXERCISES ON THE MAIN ISLAND OF TAIWAN ON SAT. — Yimou Lee (@YimouLee) August 6, 2022 Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also called on China to stop its military actions in the air and seas around Taiwan. “Canada is deeply concerned about the missiles fired by the People’s Republic of China towards Taiwan and Japan’s exclusive economic zone. This action threatens regional stability and security,” she said in a statement on Twitter. Canada is deeply concerned about the missiles fired by the People’s Republic of China towards Taiwan and Japan’s exclusive economic zone. This action threatens regional stability and security. We strongly urge the DPRK to stop its coercive military and economic actions. — Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) August 5, 2022 US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met this morning with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Malacañang Palace in Manila. Blinken was quoted as saying relations between their two countries were excellent, based on friendship, and said Washington was committed to their joint defense pact. Marcos Jr. said the current geopolitical context shows the importance of such ties. Marcos Jr. also said he did not believe Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan had escalated the conflict in the region. “It just showed how intense this conflict was,” he said, according to reports by GMA News Online. Updated at 04.25 BST The chairman of this week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings said on Saturday that discussions between foreign ministers on Taiwan tensions were lively and included some strong arguments, but it was better to address differences with words, Reuters reports. Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia’s foreign minister, said that at a meeting of foreign ministers they should have calm, dignified, polite and civilized discussions. “The most important thing is to keep talking to each other,” he told a news conference. Earlier this week, ASEAN foreign ministers called for “maximum restraint” over the Taiwan Strait, warning that the situation could lead to “serious confrontation, open conflict and unforeseen consequences between major powers.”
Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the crisis in Taiwan. Here’s a rundown of the latest developments as 10.30am ticks by. in Taipei.
The foreign ministers of the US, Australia and Japan have called on China to immediately stop military exercises around Taiwan. In a joint statement after meeting in Phnom Penh on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian and Japanese Foreign Ministers Penny Wong and Hayashi Yoshimasa “expressed their concern over recent actions by the People’s Republic of China that seriously affect international peace and stability, including the use of large-scale military exercises.” They also “condemned the DPRK’s launch of ballistic missiles, five of which the Japanese government said landed in its exclusive economic zones, raising tensions and destabilizing the region.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov walked out of a plenary session in Cambodia as Japan’s top diplomat Yoshimasa Hayashi spoke on Friday. Wang called a rare news conference late Friday, where he accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of spreading disinformation. He called Nancy Pelosi’s trip a “despicable farce” and stressed that China’s military response to it was “firm, forceful and appropriate.” US climate change special envoy John Kerry said China’s decision to suspend bilateral climate change talks with the US is not punishing Washington, it is “punishing the world”. “No country should…
