China says it is canceling or suspending talks with the US on issues ranging from climate change to military ties and anti-drug efforts by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan this week. Beijing also imposed sanctions on them.
The measures announced on Friday are the latest in a series of moves intended to punish Washington for allowing travel to the island it claims by force as its territory, if necessary. China opposes the self-governing island of its own association with foreign governments.
China sent warplanes and naval ships to the Taiwan Straits as part of its largest-ever live-fire military exercise against Taiwan for the second day in a row, CBS News’ Remi Inocencio reported.
China’s foreign ministry on Friday suspended China-US climate change talks and canceled two security meetings and a call between military leaders because of Pelosi’s “disregard for China’s strong opposition and strong representation,” according to Agence France. done. press.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that fighter jets, bombers, destroyers and warships were used as part of a “joint interception operation” in six areas off the coast of Taiwan. On Thursday, state media said China’s People’s Liberation Army had deployed more than 100 warplanes, 10 warships and a nuclear-powered submarine.
Before the sanctions were announced against Pelosi, she told reporters in Japan that the Chinese government would not decide who could travel to the island.
“They may try to prevent Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places. But they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us from traveling there,” Pelosi said.
He later said, “We will not allow them to isolate Taiwan. They are not doing our itinerary. The Chinese government is not doing that.”
After China’s actions overnight, the White House summoned Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang to clarify that “Beijing’s actions are a matter of concern to Taiwan, to us, and to our partners around the world,” adding to national security. John Kirby, the council’s strategic communications coordinator, said in a statement Friday.
“We condemn the PRC’s military actions, which are irresponsible, contrary to our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability and in the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby said. He said the White House has made it clear that “nothing has changed about our One China policy,” and that the U.S. “Beijing is ready to do whatever it wants to do. We will not seek nor want to be in trouble.”
“At the same time, we will not stop working in the seas and skies of the Western Pacific, as we have for decades – supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kirby said.
Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, since Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s visit in 1997, reports Inosensio.
Inosensio says this week’s military drills are seen by experts as a test of a possible future invasion of Taiwan, with China encircling the island with precision-guided missiles in six areas around the coast.
Fighters, bombers, destroyers and warships were used as part of “joint interception operations” in six areas, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
The Army’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of the missiles, said to hit unidentified targets “with precision” in the Taiwan Strait. These included projectiles fired into the Pacific at Taiwan, military officials told state media, in a major ratchet up of China’s threats to capture the island.
On the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan, including missiles fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, were a represent a “significant increase” and that she has urged Beijing to step back.
Blinken said Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not represent a change in US policy – Beijing’s recognition of the government’s “one-China” position, while allowing informal ties and defense ties with Taipei – on China. Accused of using “pretexts to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”
He said the situation had sparked “strong communication” during meetings of the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh in which both he and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended with ASEAN countries, Russia and others.
“I reiterate the points I have made publicly in recent days, as well as directly to Chinese counterparts, about the fact that they should not use travel as an excuse for war, escalation, provocative actions, that There is no possible justification for what they have done and urge them to stop these actions,” he said.