BBC-The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said that it continued military exercises in the north, southwest and east of Taiwan Island as planned on Friday.
The air and sea combat drills were for the purpose of “continuously testing the joint combat capabilities” of the armed forces, it said in a post on Weibo, the Chinese social media site.
There’s more from the US now, where a report in the Washington Post reveals China’s ambassador to the US was called to the White House yesterday.
“After China’s actions overnight, we summoned [People’s Republic of China] Ambassador Qin Gang to the White House to démarche him about the PRC’s provocative actions,” White House spokesman John Kirby says in a statement provided to the newspaper.
A démarche is a protest lodged through diplomatic channels.
Kirby adds that the Biden administration condemned the PRC’s military actions, “which are irresponsible and at odds with our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
The meeting was between Kurt Campbell, US President Joe Biden’s Asia tsar, and Qin, according to a White House official who spoke to the Post anonymously.
News of the meeting – which took place on Thursday – came shortly after Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, was sanctioned by China for her visit to Taiwan.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has been tweeting in English and Japanese – affirming the values Taiwan shares with democratic countries and asking the international community to “halt escalation of the security situation”.
In English, she said China’s military threat was “irresponsible to Taiwan and the international community”.
Taiwan’s government and military are closely monitoring China’s military drills and are ready to respond as necessary, she said.
Her Japanese tweet referred to the “shared values” of Taiwan and Japan.
Some social media users questioned why Tsai was tweeting in English and Japanese, but not Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan’s official language.
Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu has hailed the visit by US house speaker Nancy Pelosi as extremely significant.
Speaking to the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Joseph Wu condemned the military exercises launched by China in response as highly provocative.
He says the military drills are a threat to peace and stability in Asia.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying did not offer a comment when asked about whether missiles fired by China yesterday passed above Taiwan.
The Japanese embassy in Washington said it believed four missiles fired by China had passed over the island’s capital Taipei.
But Hua said: “I have no comment. Pelosi triggered the current tensions. All counter measures taken by China is necessary and appropriate.”
It is the diplomatic acknowledgement of China’s position that there is only one Chinese government. Under the policy, the US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland one day.
The One China policy is a key cornerstone of Sino-US relations. It is also a fundamental bedrock of Chinese policy-making and diplomacy.
However, it is distinct from the One China principle – referred to in the Chinese statement sanctioning Pelosi – whereby China insists Taiwan is an inalienable part of one China to be reunified one day.
The US policy is not an endorsement of Beijing’s position and indeed as part of the policy, Washington maintains a “robust unofficial” relationship with Taiwan, including continued arms sales to the island so that it can defend itself.
Chinese state media has not yet released information about Friday’s military drill.
A video was published showing Chinese army medics conducting a drill for sending wounded soldiers by a high speed train with surgery facilities.
On China’s Twitter-like Weibo the hashtag “second day of military drill” is being promoted and people are asking: “What’s for today?” and “Why so quiet today?”
In general, the feeling on Chinese social media is mixed. Some people are impressed by the drills so far, others seem disappointed by what they’ve seen.
China has announced it is sanctioning US Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family over her visit to Taiwan.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Pelosi had “seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs, seriously damaged China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously trampled on the one-China principle, and seriously threatened peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”, according to a statement.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
China’s military drills around Taiwan are a “disproportionate, significant and unjustified escalation”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
China has responded to top US Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan by holding days of military drills around the island.
There’s “no possible justification for what they have done”, Blinken said at the Asean regional forum.
We’ve heard lots of reaction to China’s military drills – but the “general atmosphere” in Taiwan “is still quite measured”, according to one Taiwanese reporter.
Tingting Liu, a foreign affairs and military correspondent at local broadcaster TVBS in Taipei, says people are looking at the developments “with caution – but not excessive fear”.
Asked by the BBC’s Newsday radio programme whether this meant people in the country were not fazed by the drills, she said it was more a case that people felt “there isn’t really much they can do here, except to just sit and observe”.
But she did also acknowledge that the move by China – to send aircraft over the Taiwan Strait – risks compromising the “balance” that has been “maintained over the past two or three decades”.
Jean Mackenzie
BBC News, Seoul
South Korea’s reaction to escalating Taiwan tensions, and to Speaker Pelosi’s trip, has been muted and a little clumsy.
Why? The government here wants to strengthen its relationship with the United States, a long-time ally, which it needs to defend it in the event of a conflict.
But it has another major consideration: China, its biggest trade partner.
This leaves it caught in the middle, wobbling on a precarious tightrope.
When Pelosi touched down in Seoul, straight off the back of her Taiwan stop, there was no-one from the South Korean government to greet her, and no plans for the President to meet her, making it the only country on Pelosi’s tour where she wouldn’t meet the leader.
It was because he was on holiday, we were told – albeit a staycation.
But when this excuse didn’t hold, the President’s Office admitted the decision had been made after considering national interests.
After some back-and-forth President Yoon agreed to a phone call with Pelosi – perhaps a way to keep both the US and China on his side.
But this tightrope is getting tricker to walk. The greater the tension between China and the US, the greater the pressure on South Korea, and other smaller countries in this region, to pick a side.
If you’re just joining us, it’s mid-afternoon in Taiwan and here’s what’s been happening:
As we reported earlier, Taiwan’s defence ministry said today that “multiple” Chinese vessels and aircraft had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line for the second day in a row.
A Taiwan source briefed on the matter has now told Reuters that about 10 Chinese navy ships crossed the median line and remained in the area on Friday morning, and about 20 Chinese military aircraft also briefly crossed it.
Taiwan’s navy ships are staying close to monitor Chinese navy activities, the source added.
The median line is the informal dividing line between mainland China and Taiwan.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said China “will not isolate” Taiwan by preventing US politicians from travelling there.
Responding to Chinese anger at her visit, she says “they are not doing our travel schedule”.
Pelosi made her comments from the US embassy in Tokyo, as she visits Japan for the last stage of her Asian tour.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News, Taiwan
“Taiwan is not going to be the last piece in [the] Chinese dream of expansionism,” the island’s foreign minister Joseph Wu told the BBC in an exclusive interview.
“The international community and countries in this region need to watch out for what China is trying to do.”
He also reiterated that Taiwan would like to maintain the “status quo” – that is, remain a self-ruled island with its own democratic processes, but without declaring itself to be an independent country.
China, however, claims the island as a part of its territory.
“China’s behaviour is highly provocative, and is threatening regional peace and stability. It’s disrupting international trade and international transportation,” Mr Wu said, referring to the hundreds of ships and planes that have had to be re-routed because of Chinese military drills since Thursday noon.
He welcomed US House of Representatives’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, which has spiked tensions with China.
“For important leaders like Speaker Pelosi to have the opportunity to visit Taiwan is very significant – to raise the profile of Taiwan… to allow the international community to understand that Taiwan is a democracy,” he told the BBC.
Condemning China’s effective “blockade” of the seas around Taiwan, he said the island “holds the key to economic development, particularly in the high-tech arena”.
“Many people have started to think that they cannot afford for Taiwan to be taken over by China. Every machine or important product these days needs computer chips – they come from Taiwan.
“Without this industry the international economy is going to suffer.”
Chinese jets were flying above the mainland’s Pingtan island – which lies across the Taiwan Strait from northern Taiwan and is one of the closest points on the mainland to the island.
Photographs show the jets are armed with missiles.
Tourists on the island were spotting the jets using binoculars.
China also launched missiles around Taiwan from Pingtan Island on Thursday.
Japan wants the “immediate cancellation” of China’s military drills, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Speaking to reporters after meeting top US politician Nancy Pelosi for breakfast on Friday, Kishida said the military exercises were a “serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens”.
“I told [Pelosi] that we have called for the immediate cancellation of the military drills,” he said.
Japan’s defence ministry said on Thursday that five Chinese missiles that were fired that day fell into the country’s exclusive economic zone – although China says the waters in this particular area east of Taiwan have not been delineated.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Taiwan
To China, US Speaker Pelosi’s trip to the island was anything but normal. To Beijing it is an outrageous breach of diplomatic norms.
When President Jimmy Carter recognised the People’s Republic of China in 1979, Washington agreed it would drop recognition of the “other” Chinese government in Taipei.
For Beijing, that should have been the end of the story. But America never completely gave up on Taiwan. And as this island has transformed from a military dictatorship to a flourishing democracy, the sense that the US should protect this “plucky little democracy” in the face of China’s threats has only grown.
Stephen McDonell, Beijing
Everyone’s public position on Taiwan is ridiculous. It’s like a giant game of pretend which is becoming harder to maintain.
China pretends that Taiwan is currently part of its territory, even though the island collects its own taxes, votes in its own government, issues its own passports and has its own military.
The US pretends it is not treating Taiwan as an independent country, even though it sells it high-tech weapons and, occasionally, a high-ranking politician visits on what looks very much like an official trip.
It’s apparent that it would take nothing for this flimsy show, designed to guarantee the status quo, to fall apart.
The danger for the world is that there are those in Beijing who would like to see it fall apart.
China has summoned the Japanese ambassador in Beijing as well as European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by both the G7 and EU that criticised its military drills around Taiwan.
Vice minister Deng Li called the statements “erroneous” and objected to “wanton interference in China’s internal affairs”, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
On Thursday, China also cancelled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest the G7 statement, which urged Beijing not to “attempt to unilaterally change the status quo”.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang has taken a stab at its “evil neighbour next door”, as military drills kick off for a second day.
“(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbour next door will show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardise the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters, according to a Reuters report.
China yesterday launched ballistic missiles into waters around Taiwan. Taiwan said the move, which stops ships and planes from using the space, violates its sovereignty and amounts to a blockade.
The military drills are set to continue until Sunday.
The post China restarts drills as Pelosi vows Taiwan won’t be isolated appeared first on .
