Taiwan maintained a defiant tone on Wednesday in the face of threats from Chinaready to launch military maneuvers near the island in retaliation for the visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
The delegation of Pelosi it came out of Taiwan on Wednesday night and went to South Koreahis next stop on his Asia tour.
The American representative had landed in Taiwan the day before, despite threats from Beijing, that it considers the island as part of its territory and denounced this visit as a provocation.
China He responded firmly and promised to act accordingly.
“This is a complete farce. USA violates the sovereignty of China under the guise of so-called ‘democracy’… those who offend China they will be punished,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Phnom Penh.
But Taipei remained defiant in the face of this threatening speech.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen assured that “in the face of growing and deliberate military threats, Taiwan will not back down (…) We will maintain the line of defense of democracy”.
China try to isolate from the world Taiwan and opposes all countries that maintain an official relationship with the island.
Pelosi became the highest US authority to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
“Our delegation (…) came to Taiwan to make it clear, unequivocally, that we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan and that we are proud of our long-standing friendship,” said Pelosi, 82, during a ceremony with the Taiwanese leader.
On Tuesday night, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns. Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told him of the country’s “firm protests” about him and told him that “Taiwan is he Taiwan of China“, according to the official Xinhua agency.
Live ammunition shots
For his part, the chinese ministry of defense promised “selective military actions”, with a series of military maneuvers around the island starting on Thursday, including “the firing of long-range live ammunition” in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the China continental.
These maneuvers are “a necessary and legitimate measure to respond to the serious provocations of some US politicians and Taiwanese independence activists,” according to diplomacy china.
At certain points, the Chinese area of operations will approach less than 20 kilometers from the coast of Taiwanaccording to coordinates shared by the Chinese military.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the exercises violated the island’s territorial waters.
“Some areas of the Chinese exercises violate (…) territorial waters” TaiwaneseDefense Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said. “This is an irrational action that defies the international order,” he added.
Japan manifested to China his concern about the maneuvers, which in his opinion overlap with his economic exclusion zone.
The US “will bear the responsibility”
The Beijing Ministry of Commerce also announced economic sanctions, including the suspension of the export to Taiwan of natural sand, a key component in the manufacture of semiconductors, one of the main exports of the island. And the Chinese customs administration also canceled the importation of fruits and certain fish from Taiwan.
China y Taiwan they have been separated in fact since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communist troops defeated the nationalists, who took refuge on the island.
USA recognized in 1979 the government of Beijing as a representative of Chinaalthough it continued to give military support to Taiwan.
The prospect of Pelosi visiting the island heated up tensions between the two superpowers.”States Joined will bear the responsibility and pay the price for undermining the sovereignty and security of China“A spokeswoman for Chinese diplomacy said on Tuesday before the US official arrived in Taiwan.
The “reunification” of China is a top priority for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who last week formally told Biden by phone to avoid “playing with fire”.
World stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday, despite news of Tuesday’s visit by Pelosi a Taiwan had sent chills down the spines of global financial markets already jittery over the war. Ukrainerising inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing economic growth.
AFP