Diplomatic relations took a further nosedive on Friday as China’s foreign ministry continued to say it would cancel talks between US and Chinese military leaders and suspend bilateral talks on climate and maritime security. read more Blinken said Washington has repeatedly made clear to Beijing that it is not seeking a crisis, as diplomatic standoffs continued over Pelosi’s visit this week to the self-governing island that Beijing considers its sovereign territory. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalating military response,” Blinken said, speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Cambodia. He added, “now, they have taken the dangerous acts to a new level.” China began its largest-ever military exercises in the seas and skies around Taiwan on Thursday, a day after Pelosi angered Beijing by making a solidarity trip to the island, the highest US visit to Taiwan in 25 years. The live-fire drills are scheduled to continue until noon Sunday. On Friday, China’s military conducted air and sea drills in the north, southwest and east of Taiwan “to test the joint combat capabilities of the troops,” the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said in a statement on its official Weibo. account. Blinken stressed that the United States would not take steps to provoke a crisis, but would continue to support regional allies and conduct routine air and sea transit through the Taiwan Strait. “We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. The White House summoned Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang on Thursday to condemn the escalation of actions against Taiwan, the Washington Post reported. State Department spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on China’s suspension of the talks or the report that Washington had summoned Beijing’s ambassador China’s foreign ministry announced on Friday that it would impose sanctions on Pelosi and her family in response to her “evil” and “provocative” actions. read more “Despite China’s serious concerns and China’s strong opposition, Pelosi insisted on visiting Taiwan, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, trampling on the one-China policy and to threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.” the foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. read more The State Department said it was also suspending cooperation on cross-border crime prevention and the fight against drugs, as well as cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants. Speaking in Japan, Pelosi said her trip to Asia was never about changing the regional status quo. read more
‘Bad Neighbor’
About 10 Chinese navy ships and 20 military aircraft briefly crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters. read more Earlier, Taiwan’s defense ministry said the island’s military had dispatched aircraft and ships and deployed ground-based missile systems to monitor the situation there. On Thursday, China fired multiple missiles into the waters surrounding Taiwan in an unprecedented escalation during live-fire drills. Japan’s defense ministry, which is monitoring the drills, initially said four of the missiles flew over the Taiwanese capital. It also said five of the nine missiles fired at its territory landed in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), also a first, prompting a diplomatic protest from Tokyo. Taiwan’s defense ministry later said the missiles were high in the atmosphere and posed no threat. He did not provide details of their flight paths, citing intelligence concerns. Some Taipei residents, including Mayor Ko Wen-je, criticized the government for not issuing a missile warning, but a security expert said that could have been done to avoid causing panic and playing into China’s hands. “It reacted to the effect of the Chinese Communist Party’s psychological warfare,” said Mei Fu-shin, a US-based analyst. “The shock and awe was not as great as it could have been.” Asked to comment on the missiles, Taiwan’s Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang did not immediately respond, but referred to China as “the evil neighbor displaying its power at our door.” read more “In my view, the biggest threat is that China is rehearsing a blockade, showing that it can block Taiwan’s ports and airports and impede shipping,” said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia security expert with headquarters in Washington to the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
THE WORRIES OF JAPAN
Responding to the Chinese drills, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan will not provoke conflicts but will firmly defend its sovereignty and national security. Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists seized power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) in a civil war, prompting the KMT government to retreat on the island. Beijing has said its relations with Taiwan are an internal matter. It says it reserves the right to bring Taiwan under Chinese control, by force if necessary. In Tokyo, Pelosi addressed the diplomatic turmoil caused by the congressional delegation’s weeklong trip to Asia, specifically Taiwan. “We have said from the beginning that our representation here is not about changing the status quo in Taiwan or in the region,” he told a news conference after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “I have informed Speaker Pelosi that China’s ballistic missiles landing near Japanese waters, including the EEZ, threaten our national security and that Japan had strongly condemned such actions,” Kishida said. China’s foreign ministry said it summoned the ambassador to Japan and a Canadian diplomat in Beijing on Thursday over a “false” statement by Group of Seven (G7) nations on Taiwan, and also made complaints to EU envoys. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Yimou Lee and Sarah Wu in Taipei Additional reporting by Elaine Lies and Tim Kelly in Tokyo, Greg Torode in Hong Kong, Ann Wang in Liuqiu Island. Susan Heavey in Washington. Writing by Tony Munroe, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Simon Cameron-Moore and Frances Kerry Editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry and Toby Chopra Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.