Beijing has shown its anger at Pelosi’s presence on an island it says is part of China with a flurry of military activity in nearby waters, summoning the US ambassador to Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan. Some of China’s planned military exercises will take place within Taiwan’s 12-nautical-mile sea and air territory, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry, an unprecedented move that a top defense official described to reporters as “amounting to a sea and air blockade of Taiwan”. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Pelosi arrived with a congressional delegation on an unannounced visit late Tuesday, defying repeated warnings from China, which she said showed the unwavering US commitment to Taiwan’s democracy. “Our delegation came to Taiwan to make it clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” Pelosi told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. read more “Now more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is vital, and that’s the message we bring here today.” Addressing parliament, Pelosi said new US legislation aimed at boosting the US chip industry to compete with China “offers greater opportunities for US-Taiwan economic cooperation”. “Thank you for your leadership. We want the world to recognize that,” Pelosi told Tsai, whom Beijing suspects is pushing for formal independence — a red line for China. A longtime critic of China, especially on human rights, Pelosi was scheduled to meet later Wednesday with a former Tiananmen activist, a Hong Kong bookseller who had been arrested by China and a Taiwanese activist recently released by China. people who know the subject. he said. The last US speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich, in 1997. But Pelosi’s visit comes amid a rapid deterioration in Sino-US relations, and China has emerged as a far more powerful economic, military and geopolitical power than the last quarter of a century. China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. The United States warned China not to use the visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan. In retaliation, China’s customs department announced a suspension of imports of citrus fruits, cold white striped hair and frozen sorghum from Taiwan, while the Ministry of Commerce banned it from exporting natural sand to Taiwan.
MILITARY TRAINING
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan, August 3, 2022. Taiwan Presidential Office/Handout via REUTERS read more Pelosi’s visit, which has been criticized in official Chinese news agencies, was the dominant topic on China’s heavily censored social media, with many users urging Beijing to invade the island in retaliation and expressing their displeasure at the event. that no military action had been taken to prevent her arrival. A live stream of her plane on China’s WeChat was watched by 22 million. China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo crashed shortly before Pelosi landed, which Weibo blamed on excess broadband capacity, without mentioning Taiwan. Shortly after Pelosi’s arrival, China’s military announced joint air and sea exercises near Taiwan and test firings of conventional missiles into the sea east of the island, with China’s state news agency Xinhua describing live-fire drills and other drills. around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday. China’s foreign ministry said Pelosi’s visit seriously harms peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, “has a serious impact on the political basis of China-US relations, and seriously violates China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Before Pelosi’s arrival, Chinese warplanes buzz the line dividing the Taiwan Strait. China’s military said it was on high alert and would launch “targeted military operations” in response to Pelosi’s visit. White House National Security Press Secretary John Kirby said Tuesday after Pelosi’s arrival that the United States “will not be intimidated” by China’s threats or bellicose rhetoric and that there was no reason her visit would precipitate a crisis or conflict . Kirby said China could engage in “economic coercion” toward Taiwan, adding that the impact on US-China relations would depend on Beijing’s actions in the coming days and weeks.
“AMBITIONS OF CHINA”
The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by US law to provide it with the means to defend itself. China sees visits by US officials to Taiwan as sending an encouraging message to the pro-independence camp on the island. Taiwan rejects China’s claims of sovereignty, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide the island’s future. Taiwan’s cabinet announced Wednesday that the military has raised its alert level. The island’s defense ministry said 21 Chinese aircraft entered its air defense reconnaissance zone on Tuesday and that China is attempting to threaten key ports and cities with drills in the surrounding waters. “The so-called drilling areas fall within the busiest international channels in the Indo-Pacific region,” a senior Taiwanese official familiar with its security planning told Reuters on Wednesday. “We can see China’s ambition: to make the Taiwan Strait non-international waters, as well as make the entire area west of the first island chain in the western Pacific its sphere of influence,” the person said. (This story corrects the spelling of Tiananmen in paragraph 12; this error also appeared earlier in the series) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu. Written by Tony Munroe. Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Stephen Coates Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
