AMN / WEB DESK
Condemning US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taipei, China summoned the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns to protest the visit and to issue warning that Washington will “pay a price” for its “mistakes” . China asked US to stop using the Taiwan issue to contain it in any form.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng “urgently summoned” Ambassador Burns late Tuesday night and lodged stern representations and strong protests over Pelosi’s visit, the highest by a top US leader to Taipei in 25 years. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to reunify the self-ruled island with the mainland.
State media reported Joint military exercises around the island of Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued Wednesday with a joint blockade, sea assault and land and air combat trainings, involving the use of advanced weapons including J-20 stealth fighter jets and DF-17 hypersonic missiles after the drills started on Tuesday evening, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed on the island which China says is a seriously violation of it’s sovereignty. In another move, China has suspended the export of natural sand to Taiwan from Wednesday. China also suspended import of citrus fruits and fish from Taiwan.
After arriving in Taipei, Pelosi said that the US delegation’s visit “honours America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.” “Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan and it in no way contradicts long-standing United States policy,” she said. “By travelling to Taiwan, we honour our commitment to democracy, reaffirming that the freedoms of Taiwan and all democracies must be respected.”
Xie said this is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communique. “The move is extremely egregious in nature and the consequences are extremely serious. China will not sit idly by,” Xie said. He said the US government must be held accountable as it says one thing and does another constantly distorting and hollowing out the one-China principle. “The US has d key expressions such as Taiwan is part of China from the State Department website, put Taiwan in its so-called ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’, openly upgraded its ties with Taiwan and increased arms sales to the region and supported separatist activities for ‘Taiwan independence’,” he said.
Chinese state media reported the PLA will also conduct important military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills in six large maritime areas and their air space surrounding the island of Taiwan, in its north, northeast, east, south, southwest and northwest, from Thursday noon to Sunday noon, state News Agency reported on Tuesday evening. Chinese analysts said China may take this situation as an opportunity to speed up the reunification process. They pointed out that five of the PLA drill zones are set to the east of the median line of the Taiwan Straits, and this means that the median line ceases to exist. Some drill zones are also for the first time set to include areas within 12 nautical miles to the island of Taiwan, which is Taiwan’s territorial waters.