Beijing announced on Friday (5) that it will suspend military dialogue and negotiations with the United States in several areas, including combating the climate emergency, in response to the recent visit by Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi to the island of Taiwan.
The announcement was made by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement, in which it says that the Speaker of the American Chamber disregarded “the serious reprimands from China”. Cooperation against transnational crimes and for the repatriation of immigrants is also being suspended.
Sanctions were also applied against Pelosi and her next of kin, the ministry said, but the measures were not detailed.
The Democrat, the most senior US official to visit the island in 25 years, said her visit was not intended to “change the status quo in the region”. “But the Chinese government is not satisfied that our friendship with Taiwan is strong,” she continued. She was speaking at a press conference after meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a tour of Asia.
The sight of Pelosi triggered the biggest Chinese military exercise in history around Taiwan on Thursday, when 16 ballistic missiles were fired into the waters off the island.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that the exercises were continuing and that several Chinese aircraft and warships had crossed the line separating the island from mainland China.
Visiting Cambodia to attend the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) forum, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Beijing’s responses as an unwarranted escalation. “There is no justification for this extreme and disproportionate military response; they have taken the situation to a new level.”
Growing tensions between Beijing and Washington have overshadowed the meeting of foreign ministers from member countries of the Asian bloc, planned to focus on issues related to Myanmar, ruled by a military junta since the February 2021 coup and the scene of human rights violations. Representatives from the USA such as Blinken, as well as China, Australia and Japan were also invited.
Reports by participants to the Reuters news agency reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov left a joint session while his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi was speaking.
Wang had already canceled a meeting with Hayashi, citing discontent with a statement by the G7 – a group that Japan is part of – calling for the tension in Taipei to be resolved peacefully.
The aforementioned text was published on Wednesday (3) and called for Beijing not to use force in the region to resolve differences. “We are concerned about China’s recent and announced threatening actions; there is no justification for using a visit [de Pelosi] as a pretext for aggressive military activity.”
