Taiwan remained defiant this Wednesday against threats of Chinese military maneuvers near its coasts after the visit to the island of the president of the House of Representatives of the United States, Nancy Pelosi. The Democratic legislator visited Taiwanese soil on Tuesday, despite threats from Beijing, which considers the island to be part of her territory.
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The Chinese government considers Pelosi’s visit a “violation of its sovereignty” and announced that a series of military maneuvers begin today, with “long-range live ammunition firing” in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China.
(In context: When and how China lost Taiwan (and what is the status of the ‘rogue island’)
“The United States violates China’s sovereignty under the guise of so-called ‘democracy’ (…). Those who offend China will be punished,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.
The Taiwanese authorities indicated that during the 27th chinese military aircraft they had entered its air defense zone (vast than the airspace of a country).
But Taipei showed no signs of flinching. “In the face of growing and deliberate military threats, Taiwan will not back down… We will hold the line of defense of democracy,” said Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
Pelosi’s visit counters Chinese attempts to isolate the island. “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 lasting friendship,” Pelos said during a ceremony with the Taiwanese president.
Before leaving Taiwan for South Korea, Pelosi met with Chinese dissidents, including Wu’er Kaixi, one of the student leaders of the bloodily suppressed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The truth is that the United States is looking at an escalation of tensions with China. In fact, Washington insisted on Wednesday that it sees no reason for Beijing to turn Pelosi’s trip into a “crisis.”
At all times, the Joe Biden Administration has sought to distance itself from this visit and has stressed that it is a personal decision by Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in a quarter century.
The executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute think tank, Russell Hsiao, told Efe that the White House apparently did everything it could to discourage Pelosi from going to Taiwan, in light of public disagreements and official statements about the concern. of the United States Armed Forces about this trip.
“Basically, this is a decision of the president (of the lower house) and I think that President Biden respected the fundamental principle of the political system of the United States, the separation of powers,” he said.
Asia expert Thomas Shattuck, from the Foreign Policy Research Institute think tank, said that when a member of Congress makes this type of trip, he usually has the support of the Armed Forces in terms of transportation and logistics.
In the face of growing and deliberate military threats, Taiwan will not back down (…). We’ll hold the line of defense
Therefore, he deduced, “there was coordination given that she took a military plane and the president is the commander in chief. But beyond that, it is very clear that the Administration is not very happy with its decision.
On how to interpret the Chinese military maneuvers, Taiwan historian James Lin, a professor at the University of Washington, predicted that it is possible that Beijing’s retaliation will continue in the coming days and weeks, since it has only increased “his nationalist theatrical skills” for its domestic and foreign audience. Still, Lin noted that “it is possible” that China only applies the punishment to Taiwan and not against the United States.
Shattuck said he was “100 percent” sure that there will be an escalation of tension between the two great international powers, which will make the Indo-Pacific region more “unstable.”
In his opinion, today’s military maneuvers by China are “a very provocative measure.” Those exercises, he added, assume that there will be ships that will have to be diverted to avoid the Taiwan Strait, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.
For its part, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said that the exercises violate the territorial waters of the island and denounced “an irrational action that defies the international order.” Meanwhile, the G7 stated that “there is no justification for using this visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the strait.”
For now, the United States has several warships in the area: A spokeswoman for the United States Pacific Fleet told Efe on Tuesday that the country has near Taiwan the Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier Combat Group and the amphibious ship USS Tripoli.
On other fronts, 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 canceled the import of fruits and certain fish from Taiwan.
AFP and EFE
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