BEIJING: China’s countermeasures in response to United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan are necessary and legitimate, as they are taken to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the principles governing international relations, officials and experts said.
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that if China does not resolutely resist the “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational” act of the US side, the principle of international relations on respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity will become empty words, separatists and extremists will become more rampant, and the region’s hard-won peace and stability will be seriously jeopardized.
What China has done and will do are necessary and timely countermeasures that aim to warn against provocateurs and also protect regional stability and peace across the Taiwan Straits, he said.
China’s countermeasures include staging military drills near Taiwan, conducting large-scale air and naval activities, punishing organizations related to die-hard “Taiwan independence” elements, and suspending natural sand exports to Taiwan, as well as the imports of some farm produce from the island.
Wang, who is attending the “ASEAN-plus” foreign ministers’ meetings in Cambodia, canceled a scheduled meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa after Yoshimasa, with other foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations and the high representative of the European Union, issued a joint statement about Taiwan.
The statement groundlessly accused China of escalating tensions across the Taiwan Straits.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news conference on Thursday that tensions across the Taiwan Straits are fundamentally caused by the US’ connivance on Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan by taking a military plane, disregarding China’s strong opposition.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchage item
