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 into the Strait of Taiwan for the second day in a row as part of its largest-ever live-fire. military drills Ever Against Taiwan, reports CBS News’ Remy Inocencio.
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.
She later said, “We will not let them isolate Taiwan. They are not doing our itinerary. The Chinese government is not doing that.”
According to the Washington Post, overnight the White House called on the Chinese ambassador to explain that the US does not want a crisis in the region and condemn Beijing’s escalation against Taiwan.
Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years, since Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s visit in 1997, Inosensio reports.
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.
During 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 at Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, were a ” significant growth” 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.
Blinken did not sit face-to-face with Wang, but said he had already spoken with the Chinese foreign minister about the possibility of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan during meetings in Bali, and made the US position clear.
Pelosi was warmly welcomed as the first US House speaker and highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years.
Despite the aggressive Chinese response to the visit, Blinken said the US would also not change its “commitment to the security of our allies in the region” and that the Defense Department had ordered the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier “to remain at the station”. To monitor the situation in the general area.”
“We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. “We will continue to conduct standard air and sea transit through the Strait of Taiwan, which is in line with our long-term vision of working with allies and partners to maintain freedom of navigation and overflight.
