China’s increasing military drills aimed at Taiwan—as an offshoot of last week’s visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — that even fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, “represent a significant escalation” prompting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to ask Beijing to back down.
The world watched with bated breath as the third highest official of the United States—Speaker Nancy Pelosi—visited Taiwan to reassure the democratic island state being claimed by China, of America’s continued support, angering China and putting the entire Asian region at risk of an armed confrontation.
Pelosi is the most senior lawmaker to have visited Taiwan in 25 years.
Brief as the visit was, it reinforced China’s (angry) determination to get Taiwan by full force even if it meant endangering the security of Taiwan’s neighboring countries and the Asian region. The visit reinforced China’s resolve to attack by land, sea and air and blockade (for itself) Taiwan from the rest of the world.
The day after Pelosi arrived in Taipei, China conducted live-fire exercises in the sea and airspace around Taiwan, which Taiwan’s defense department said “encroached on our territory as close as 12 nautical miles from the island.”
Blinken in ASEAN
The Associated Press said Blinken told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia that Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not represent a change in American policy toward Taiwan, accusing China of using it as a “pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”
“I reiterated the points that we made publicly as well as directly to Chinese counterparts in recent days, again, about the fact that they should not use the visit as a pretext for war, escalation, for provocative actions, that there is no possible justification for what they’ve done and urge them to cease these actions,” he said.
China on Friday announced unspecified sanctions on Pelosi for her Taiwan visit, which a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said she had disregarded China’s concerns and resolute opposition to her trip.
Pelosi received a euphoric welcome as the first US House speaker, and highest- ranking US official, to visit Taiwan in more than 25 years, the AP said. The last US house speaker to go to Taiwan was Newt Gingrich, in 1997.
China opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments and has accused the US of breaking the status quo with the Pelosi visit. But America insists there has been no change to its “one-China” position of recognizing the government in Beijing, while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
Despite the aggressive Chinese reaction 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 group “to remain on station in the general area to monitor the situation.”
“We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. “We’ll continue to conduct standard air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait, consistent with our long-standing approach to working with allies and partners to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight.”
On Thursday, China canceled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest a statement from the Group of Seven industrialized nations that said there was no justification for Beijing’s military exercises, which virtually encircle Taiwan.
When Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa began to speak Friday at the East Asia Summit, both Lavrov and Wang walked out of the room, a diplomat revealed.
In the wake of the Chinese missile launches into Japan’s economic zone, Blinken said the US stands in “strong solidarity” with Japan following the “dangerous actions China has taken.”
Missile strikes
The fact that China conducted “precision missile strikes” Thursday in the Taiwan Strait and in the waters off the eastern coast of Taiwan as part of military exercises and vowed to continue its aggression has raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades, foreign media commented.
ASEAN foreign ministers in a statement on August 4 expressed wariness that the tension in the Taiwan Strait following the controversial visit of Pelosi to Taiwan would lead to ‘miscalculation’ and ‘open conflict.’ They expressed concern about “the international and regional volatility, especially in the recent development in the area adjacent with the Asean region.”
Asean statement
The ASEAN statement made no specific mention of Pelosi, China or the United States, but called for “maximum restraint,” and to “refrain from provocative action and to [uphold] the principles enshrined in United Nations Charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).”
“The Philippines urges restraint by all parties concerned. Diplomacy and dialogue must prevail,” the Department of Foreign Affairs statement said as it reiterated the country’s support for the One-China Policy, which the Asean foreign ministers also reiterated.
Complete farce
At the sidelines of the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting on Wednesday, Wang said Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was a “complete farce” and warned that “those who play with fire will perish by it and those who offend China will be punished.” He was also quoted as accusing the US of violating China’s sovereignty using the “guise of democracy.”
“These perverse actions will not alter the international consensus on the one-China principle, nor the historical trend that Taiwan will return to the motherland,” he added.
Military exercises
Shortly after Pelosi’s arrival, China’s military announced joint air and sea drills near Taiwan and test launches of conventional missiles in the sea east of the island, which Xinhua described as live-fire drills and other exercises around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday.
Before Pelosi’s arrival, Chinese warplanes buzzed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese military said it was on high alert and will launch “targeted military operations” in response to Pelosi’s visit.
Last August 4, a projectile was launched from an unspecified location in China, which China called a “precision missile strikes” in the Taiwan Strait as part of military exercises that have raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades.
China earlier announced that military exercises by its navy, air force and other departments were underway in six zones surrounding Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
Five of the missiles fired by China (prompted by Pelosi’s Taiwan visit) landed inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off its coast, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”
The drills were meant to advertise China’s threat to attack the self-governing island republic. Along with its moves to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, China has long threatened military retaliation over moves by the island to solidify its de facto independence with the support of key allies including the US.
China’s fury
China furiously condemned Pelosi’s visit and planned military exercises within Taiwan’s 12 nautical mile sea and air territory, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry, an unprecedented move a senior defense official described as “amounting to a sea and air blockade of Taiwan.”
In retaliation, China’s customs department announced a suspension of imports of citrus fruits, chilled white striped hairtail and frozen horse mackerel from Taiwan, while its commerce ministry banned export of natural sand to Taiwan.
White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said China might engage in “economic coercion” toward Taiwan, adding that the impact on US-China relations will depend on Beijing’s actions in coming days and weeks.
A senior Taiwan official familiar with its security planning told Reuters that “we can see China’s ambition: to make the Taiwan Strait non-international waters, as well as making the entire area west of the first island chain in the western pacific its sphere of influence.”