China cut ties with the United States on vital issues on Friday — including military issues and critical climate cooperation — as concerns grew that the communist government’s hostile reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan could signal a sustained, more aggressive approach toward the US rival and the self-governing island. China’s move to freeze key lines of communication compounded a deterioration in relations since Pelosi’s visit and a Chinese response with military exercises off Taiwan, including missiles fired into nearby waters. After the White House summoned China’s ambassador, Qin Gang, late Thursday to protest the military drills, White House spokesman John Kirby on Friday condemned the decision to end important dialogue with the United States as “irresponsible.” The White House spokesman slammed China’s “provocative” actions after Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory. But Kirby noted that some channels of communication remain open between military officials in the two countries. He repeated daily assurances that the US had not changed its policy towards the communist mainland and the self-governing island. “The bottom line is that we will continue our efforts to continue to open lines of communication that protect our interests and our values,” Kirby said. He declined to talk about any damage to long-term relations between China and the United States, calling that a discussion for later. 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. On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists flocked to try to catch a glimpse of military aircraft. A minister at the Chinese embassy in Washington, Jing Quan, told reporters that Pelosi’s support mission to Taiwan’s democratic government had “a serious impact on the political basis of China-US relations, a serious violation of China’s sovereignty and (territorial) sovereignty.” integrity and… undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.’ Longer term, a significantly more confrontational relationship between China and the US threatens an equilibrium under which the administrations of Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping have fought over human rights, trade, competition and countless other issues but avoided direct conflict and they maintained occasional contacts at the highest level. other issues, including reducing climate-damaging emissions. A joint US-China agreement on combating climate change reached by Xi and then-President Barack Obama in November 2014 is credited as a turning point that led to the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, in which nearly every nation in the world committed to try to limit emissions of heat-trapping gases. Seven years later, during the Glasgow climate talks, another US-China deal helped iron out problems in another international climate agreement. 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. Ominously, experts in China-US relations have warned that China’s diplomatic and military moves appear to go beyond retaliation for the visit and could usher in a new, more openly hostile era and a more uncertain era for Taiwan’s democratic government. China-US relations are “on the decline,” said Bonnie Glaser, head of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund. “And I think China is likely to change the status quo in the Taiwan Straits in ways that will be harmful to Taiwan and will be harmful to the United States,” Glasser said. In recent years, other rounds of tensions between China and its neighbors over borders with India, regional islands and the South China Sea have ended with China asserting new territorial claims and enforcing them, noted John Culver , a former East Asian intelligence officer, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. The same could happen now in Taiwan, Culver said. “So I don’t know how this ends. We’ve seen how it starts.” China’s measures this week are the latest 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 exercises just off the coast of Taiwan, until Sunday. Some of the missiles were sent flying over Taiwan itself, Chinese officials told state media — a significant increase in China’s threat to the island. China usually protests when Taiwan has direct contact with foreign governments, but its response to the visit by Pelosi — the highest-ranking American official in 25 years — was unusually strong. It appears to have derailed a rare note of encouragement — high-level meetings between top officials in recent months, including defense chiefs at an Asian security conference in Singapore and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken at a Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia. These talks were seen as steps in a positive direction in an otherwise poisoned relationship. Now, talks have broken down even on climate, where envoys from the two countries had met several times. China has not stopped short of stalling economic and trade talks, where it is looking to Biden to lift tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on Chinese imports. On Friday, China’s foreign ministry 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. China’s moves come ahead of a key ruling Communist Party congress later this year, at which President Xi is expected to receive a third five-year term as party leader. With the economy faltering, the party has stoked nationalism and launched almost daily attacks on the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who refuses to recognize Taiwan as part of China. China announced 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. Also, mostly symbolic sanctions against Pelosi and her family were announced. Off China’s coast, fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking pictures shouted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out over the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island, a popular scenic spot in China’s Fujian province. Pelosi’s visit has 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 the neighboring province of Zhejiang. 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. China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to regain control have appeared in Communist Party statements, the education system and state-controlled media for more than seven decades since the sides split. in the midst of civil 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. 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, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missiles to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.” In Tokyo, where Pelosi is wrapping up her Asia trip, she said China cannot prevent US officials from visiting Taiwan. —— AP writer David Rising reported from Phnom Penh. AP writers Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Seth Borenstein and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.
