Chinese government sanctions US Speaker Nancy Pelosi in retaliation for a visit this week by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. China announced on Friday that it would either cancel or suspend dialogue with the United States. This is on a wide range of issues, including climate change, military relations, and anti-drug efforts.
The measures are the latest in a promised series of steps intended to punish the United States. This is to allow the visit to the island that China claims as its own territory and which may be annexed by force if necessary. This comes at a time when relations between Beijing and Washington have been deteriorating rapidly. China began threatening military drills on Thursday in six zones close off the shores of Taiwan. The operations are scheduled to continue until Sunday, according to China.
According to the authorities speaking to the state media, missiles have also been launched over Taiwan. China has always been against the self-governing island. It has said it doesn’t want the island to make its own connections with other countries. However, China has been especially critical of Pelosi’s visit.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that talks about military maritime safety and a meeting between regional commanders and heads of defense departments from the US and China would not happen.
The ministry said that they would no longer work together on things like sending back illegal immigrants. Also on criminal investigations, international crime, the spread of illegal drugs and climate change.
According to a statement released by the ministry, Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan “in violation of China’s strong disapproval and serious representations,” prompted the ministry to take the necessary steps.
Chinese government sanctions US Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a visit to Taiwan
China has accused the Biden administration of an infringement on Chinese sovereignty. This is despite the fact that Pelosi is the leader of the legislative arm of the government and that the Biden administration did not have the right to ban her visit.
The moves taken by China come just before a significant meeting of the ruling Communist Party. This will take place later this year and is likely to result in President Xi Jinping’s being re-elected to a third five-year term as party leader. In the face of a weakening economy, the party is stoking up nationalism and launching almost daily attacks against the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which continues to reject the idea that Taiwan is a part of China.
China announced on Friday that more than one hundred warplanes and ten warships have participated in live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan over the past two days. At the same time, China announced sanctions against the family of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her visit to Taiwan earlier this week. These sanctions are mainly symbolic in nature.
The official Xinhua News Agency said on Friday that “joint obstruction operations” used a wide range of military assets. This includes planes, bombers, destroyers and frigates.
The military’s Eastern Theater Command also carried out missile tests with newer versions of the missiles. It is said “struck unidentified targets with accuracy” in the Taiwan Strait.
The Rocket Force also launched missiles over Taiwan and into the Pacific. This represents a significant escalation in China’s threats to attack and occupy the island. This is according to statements made by military leaders to state media.
The Drills (Chinese government sanctions US Speaker Nancy Pelosi)
The drills, whose size has never been seen before, are China’s loudest response to Pelosi’s visit. Xinhua described the drills as being held on an “unprecedented scale.” The speaker is the highest-ranking politician from the United States to visit Taiwan in the past quarter of a century.
The dialogue and exchanges between China and the United States on subjects pertaining to military and economic exchanges have, for the most part, been, at best, slow. Climate change and the fight against the trafficking of dangerous drugs like fentanyl, on the other hand, were areas where they had found common ground. Beijing’s decision to stop working together could make it harder to make progress in these areas.
Together, China and the United States are responsible for over 40 percent of the world’s total fossil-fuel emissions. This makes them the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 climate polluters, respectively. Their top climate diplomats, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, maintained a cordial relationship. This dates back to the Paris climate accord. This was made possible by a breakthrough negotiated between the two and others. This accord was made possible by a breakthrough negotiated between the two and others.
At the United Nations global climate summit held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, the previous year, China, at Kerry’s urging, made a commitment to work with the United States “with urgency” to cut climate-wrecking emissions. Kerry did not succeed in getting China to move away from coal much more quickly, though.
On Friday, visitors gathered on the Chinese shore across from Taiwan. This is in the hopes of catching a glimpse of any military aircraft flying toward the drill location.
Chinese not please with Pelosi
It was possible to hear fighter planes passing overhead. Also, visitors who were snapping pictures screamed, “Let’s take Taiwan back.” This was as they looked out into the clear blue seas of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island. This is a well-known picturesque site in Fujian province.
Pelosi’s visit caused a stir in the emotions of the Chinese public. The response of the government “makes us feel our motherland is very powerful and gives us confidence that the return of Taiwan is an irresistible trend.” This is according to Wang Lu, a tourist from the neighboring province of Zhejiang in China. Wang Lu is from Zhejiang.
Liu Bolin, a high school student from China who was visiting the island, claimed that China is a “strong country,” and that the nation “would not allow anybody to insult its own territory.”
Zheng Zhidan, his mother, possessed a more reserved demeanor. Zheng’s statement was that “We are compatriots, and we desire to live in peace.” “We ought to get along and coexist happily with one another.”
Since 1949, when the two sides were separated in the midst of a civil war, China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory. Also, its threat to use force to bring it under its control has been a prominent theme. That is, in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party, the education system, and the entirely state-controlled media. This has been the case for more than seven decades.
The majority of people living in Taiwan are in favor of keeping the status quo of the island’s de facto independence. They are opposed to China’s demands that the island merge with the mainland and be governed by the Communist Party.
The Ministry of Defense
China dispatched military ships and warplanes beyond the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning. This is according to the Taiwanese Defense Ministry. This breached what had been an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan for decades.
According to Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, five of the missiles fired by China. That is, since the military drills began on Thursday in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This is off the island of Hateruma, which is located to the extreme south of Japan’s major islands. He stated that Japan had lodged a protest with China about the missile landings. It cited that they posed “severe dangers to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”
Later, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said that they think four more missiles fired from China’s Fujian province on the southeast coast went over Taiwan.
On Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that China’s military drills aimed at Taiwan are a “serious situation.” This is because it threatens the peace and security of the area.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, said that China’s actions were in line. That is, in line with “international law and international practices.” However, she didn’t show any proof to back up her claim.
At a daily briefing, Hua said to the media that there is no such thing as an EEZ of Japan. This is because China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in the relevant waters. “As for the Exclusive Economic Zone, China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in relevant waters,” Hua said.
Pelosi’s’ Travel Plans
Pelosi is currently ending up her journey around Asia in Tokyo. This is where she made the statement that China cannot prevent U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan. After having brunch with Pelosi and her congressional group, Kishida stated that the missile launches must be “stopped immediately.”
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China has stated that it has requested the presence of European diplomats in the country as a form of protest against statements made by the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union. These statements criticized the Chinese military exercises that are taking place in the region surrounding Taiwan.
On Friday, the Chinese government’s Foreign Ministry stated that Vice Minister Deng Li had made “solemn representations” against what he referred to as “wanton intervention in China’s domestic affairs.”
In his speech, Deng promised that China would “keep the country from separating with the fiercest determination, using all measures and at whatever cost.”
The government said that the meeting took place on Thursday evening. However, it did not provide any details on the countries that were there. China and Japan decided earlier on Thursday to postpone a meeting between their foreign ministers. This is in response to the declaration made by the G-7 that there is no basis for the drills.
Both ministers were in Cambodia for a conference held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
China has made much of the international support it has received for its response to Representative Pelosi’s visit. This support has primarily come from other authoritarian states, like Russia, Syria, and North Korea.
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China’s stance on Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit
In an earlier act of protest against Pelosi’s visit, China had called in the United States Ambassador, Nicholas Burns. After having a meeting with Tsai and participating in many other public engagements, the speaker departed Taiwan on Wednesday. She continued her journey to Japan and South Korea after that. Both countries have military bases that belong to the United States, and both could get into a fight with Taiwan.
Xinhua says that soldiers from the navy, the air force, the rocket force, the strategic support force, and the logistic support force are taking part in the Chinese drills.
It is considered that these are the largest events conducted near Taiwan in terms of geography, and they are also the ones that are held the closest to the island; they are within 20 kilometers (12 miles). On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the drills a “major escalation” and said he had asked Beijing to change its position.
The legislation of the United States mandates that the government must consider any threats to Taiwan, including blockades, to be of “grave concern.” These moves remind me of the big military drills China did in 1995 and 1996 to scare Taiwan’s political leaders and people.
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Civil Defense Drills
Even though Taiwan has put its military on high alert and has been conducting drills for civil defense, the general atmosphere on Friday was still calm. Because of the Chinese drills, airlines have had to cancel or reroute flights, and fishermen have decided to stay in port.
Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was seen going for a swim in the morning on Thursday at the port of Keelung, and he stated that he was not worried about anything. “Everyone ought to want money, not guns,” Lu stated. “Everyone should want money.”
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