China has imposed sanctions on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her family, n retaliation for her visit to Taiwan, which China strongly condemned.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the sanctions on Friday, calling Pelosi’s “visit to China’s Taiwan region” an “egregious provocation” and a “gross interference” into the country’s internal affairs.
Wang warned the United States not to “stir up a bigger crisis” over Taiwan following Pelosi’s trip to the island, which Beijing had repeatedly warned against.
Wang blamed Washington for creating tensions, as the visit prompted Chinese live-fire drills on an unprecedented scale targeting Taiwan, to which the US responded by increasing deployment in the region.
“The usual tactic of the US is that they first create the problems, and then use them to achieve their goal. But this approach will not work on China,” said Wang, who cancelled a meeting with his Japanese counterpart that had previously been scheduled on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathering in Cambodia.
China called off Wang’s face-to-face with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, in response to a Group of Seven statement expressing concern about Beijing’s “threatening actions” around Taiwan in the wake of Pelosi’s visit.
“In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs,” said Wang “It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
The One China principle is the position held by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with the PRC serving as the sole legitimate government of that China, and Taiwan is a part of China.
That view rejects the reality that there are two states—the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Chinese mainland and the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan—that are in fact two separate countries.
The United States has formal relations with the PRC, which it recognizes as the sole legal government of China, but simultaneously maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan and does not recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan.
“The U.S. side claimed that China is escalating the situation, but the basic facts are that the United States first provoked China on the Taiwan question and blatantly violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Wang.
Large-scale Communist military exercises around Taiwan and the launch of ballistic missiles have sparked international controversy, and a number of democracies have condemned them in unison including the United States, Japan, the European Union, NATO, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada and others.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said, “China overreacted and used the Speaker’s visit as an excuse to increase provocative military operations in the Taiwan Strait.”
While Kirby criticized China’s actions as “creating a crisis” Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized that, “With regard to Taiwan, U.S. policy has not changed.”
Republican Senator Rick Scott visited Taiwan about a month ago, but the Chinese communists apparently did not consider his trip to be of any significance.