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US-China relations: Washington urges Beijing to stop pressuring Taiwan after reports of airspace incursion
- US ‘notes with concern the pattern of ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbours, including Taiwan’, State Department says
- ‘We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue,’ it says
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Washington urged Beijing to end its military pressure against Taiwan on Saturday, hours after the island reported a large incursion into its airspace by the mainland Chinese air force.
“The United States notes with concern the pattern of [Beijing’s] ongoing attempts to intimidate its neighbours, including Taiwan,” the US State Department said.
The statement stopped short of referring directly to the reported incursion by Chinese warplanes hours earlier.
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“We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected representatives,” said the statement, one of the first on Taiwan since Joe Biden took over as US president.
Taiwan’s defence ministry reported earlier on Saturday that eight People’s Liberation Army bombers and four fighter jets entered the southwestern corner of the island’s air defence identification zone and that its air force deployed missiles to “monitor” the incursion.
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