China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns overnight to protest against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan island late Tuesday night, stressing that the nature of Pelosi’s visit is extremely vicious and the consequence is very grave. The Chinese side will not sit idly by.
Noting that the US government should have restrained Pelosi’s unscrupulous move and prevented her from going against the historical trend but instead indulged her and colluded with her, which exacerbates the tension in the Taiwan Straits and seriously damages China-US ties, Xie said the US must pay the price for its own mistake. China will take necessary and resolute countermeasures and we mean what we say.
Shortly after Pelosi arrived at Taipei’s Songshan Airport, five Chinese departments issued statements condemning the visit, which has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, seriously infringes upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the “Taiwan independence” forces.
On Tuesday night, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched massive military drills around the island of Taiwan, including a long-range live fire drill in the Taiwan Straits and a live fire conventional missile drill to the east of the island.
The PLA will conduct important military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills in six large maritime areas and their air space surrounding the island of Taiwan, in its north, northeast, east, south, southwest and northwest, from Thursday noon to Sunday noon.
Chinese officials and experts warned that all the consequences of this highly dangerous and provocative move will be borne by Washington, and such visit will also forever change the cross-Straits situation and deliver a destructive impact on the already-difficult China-US relations.
Incomplete statistics showed China has summoned US diplomats at least 17 times since 1992. Among those summonses, at least eight were related to the Taiwan question, such as US selling military jets to the island in 1992, 1999, 2000 and 2001, allowing visit of Lee Teng-hui to the US in 1995, Tang Yiau-min in 2002 and the passage of Taiwan Security Enhancement Act in 2000.
Besides Wednesday’s urgent summon, the latest one was on December 8, 2020, when then Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang summoned Robert W. Forden, chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy to China, to express solemn opposition to the US State Department announcement of sanctions on 14 vice chairs of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee over Hong Kong affairs.
(Global Times)
