China on Friday said it was canceling or suspending dialogue with USA on a range of issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation for this week’s visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The measures, which come amid a fracturing relationship between Beijing and Washington, are the latest in a series of promised steps aimed at punishing the US for allowing a visit to the island it claims. territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. On Thursday, China conducted threatening military exercises in six areas just off the coast of Taiwan that it said would last through Sunday.
Defense officials told state media that missiles were also fired at Taiwan. China opposes the self-governing island having its own contacts with foreign governments, but its response to Pelosi’s visit has been unusually resonant.
The State Department said the dialogue between the US and Chinese regional commanders and the defense chief would be canceled, along with talks on military maritime safety.
Cooperation on the return of illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crimes, illegal drugs and climate change will be suspended, the ministry said.
China said on Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships had participated in live-fire drills around Taiwan in the past two days, and announced the sanctions were largely symbolic. object to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family during a previous visit to Taiwan. week.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that fighter jets, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in the so-called “joint blockade operation”.
The military’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of the missile, which it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “with high precision.”
Military officers told state media the Rocket Force had also fired projectiles from Taiwan into the Pacific Ocean, in the exact context of China’s threats to attack and invade the island.
The drills, which Xinhua described as being held on an “unprecedented scale”, were China’s toughest response to Pelosi’s visit. The speaker is the highest-ranking US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
Dialogue and exchanges between China and the United States, especially on military issues and economic exchanges, have generally been halted. However, climate change and combating the trade in illicit drugs such as fentanyl are areas where they have found common cause, and Beijing’s discontinuance could have important implications for those who need it. efforts to make progress in solving those problems.
On the Chinese coast facing Taiwan, tourists gathered on Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft approaching the exercise area.
The sound of warplanes flying overhead and tourists taking pictures can be heard chanting “Bring Taiwan back”, overlooking the azure waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island, a popular scenic spot in Taiwan. Fujian province.
Pelosi’s visit has stirred emotions among the Chinese public, and the government’s response “makes us feel very strong home and gives us confidence that going back to Taiwan is trending.” irresistible,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang province.
“China is a powerful country and will not allow anyone to encroach on its territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student who visited the island.
His mother, Zheng Zhidan, is more cautious.
“We are compatriots and we hope to live in peace,” said Zheng. “We should live peacefully together.”
China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to bring Taiwan under its control has been prominent in the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda, education system and The media has been completely state-controlled for more than seven decades since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
The people of Taiwan fully support maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s claim that the island be united with the mainland under Communist control.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on Friday morning, China sent military ships and warplanes across the middle of the Taiwan Strait, passing through what has for decades been an unofficial buffer zone between China and China. and Taiwan.
Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said five of the missiles fired by China since the drills began on Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island located far south of Japan’s main islands, said Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi. He said that Japan opposed the missile landings to China as “a serious threat to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”
Japan’s Defense Ministry later said it believed four other missiles fired from China’s southeast coast of Fujian flew over Taiwan.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday that China’s military exercises against Taiwan are a “serious issue” that threatens regional peace and security.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China’s actions were in line with “international law and international practice”, although she did not provide evidence.
“As for the Exclusive Economic Zone, China and Japan have not done maritime delimitation in the relevant waters, so there is no such thing as Japan’s EEZ,” Hua told reporters at a press conference. daily briefing.
In Tokyo, where Ms. Pelosi is preparing for her Asia tour, she said China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan. Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the rocket launches needed to be “stopped immediately.”
China says it has summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements by the Group of 7 industrialized nations and the European Union criticizing Chinese military exercises around Taiwan.
Its Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Vice Minister Deng Li had made a “solemn statement” about what he called “indiscriminate interference in China’s internal affairs”.
Deng said that China would “prevent the country from being divided with the utmost determination, using all means and at any cost”.
The ministry said the meeting was held on Thursday night but gave no information on which countries were involved. Earlier, on Thursday, China canceled a foreign minister meeting with Japan to protest the G-7’s statement that there was no justification for the exercises.
Both ministers are attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia.
China has boosted the overseas support it received in response to Pelosi’s visit, mainly from other authoritarian countries such as Russia, Syria and North Korea.
Earlier, China summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and holding other public events. She traveled to Korea and then Japan. Both countries own US military bases and could be drawn into a conflict involving Taiwan.
China’s drills involve troops from the navy, air force, missile force, strategic support force and logistics support force, according to Xinhua.
They are thought to be the largest held geographically near Taiwan and the closest within _ within 20 kilometers (12 mi) of the island.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called the drills a “significant escalation” and said he had urged Beijing to back down.
US law requires the government to treat threats to Taiwan, including the blockade, as matters of “serious concern”.
The drills are an echo of China’s last major military exercises intended to intimidate Taiwan’s leaders and voters in 1995 and 1996.
Taiwan has put its military on alert and held civil defense exercises, but the general mood remained calm on Friday. Flights were canceled or diverted and the fishermen remained in port to avoid Chinese drills.
In the northern port of Keelung, 63-year-old Lu Chuan-hsiong, enjoying a swim Thursday morning, said he was not worried.
“People should want money, not bullets,” Lu said.
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