China cancels range of US exchanges after slapping sanctions on Pelosi and family over Taipei visit
- Countermeasures include suspension of defence ministry talks, as well as cooperation on illegal immigration, cross-border crimes and climate change
- Moves are justified and not excessive, Chinese foreign ministry says, hitting back at earlier US suggestion that Beijing had overreacted
The Chinese foreign ministry said dialogues between the leaders of Chinese and US military theatres, the working meeting of Chinese and US defence ministries and consultation mechanism on maritime military safety between Beijing and the US are cancelled.
Cooperation on repatriating illegal immigrants, criminal justice assistance, cross-border crimes, narcotics and climate change will also be suspended.
03:35
Mainland China conducts military live-fire drills as tensions soar over Pelosi visit to Taiwan
Beijing’s countermeasures against Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan are justified and not excessive, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday, hitting back at White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s comment on Thursday that China had overreacted.
Calling the US side a “crisis maker”, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the current situation was completely caused by Pelosi and American politicians.
Pelosi’s visit has escalated the substantive relationship between the US and Taiwan, and has seriously violated the one-China principle, Hua said.
“China has made diplomatic efforts to the greatest extent … all consequences arising therefrom shall be borne by the United States,” she warned.
“On issues concerning China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, China’s countermeasures are justified, necessary, appropriate, and not excessive.”
United Nations laments communication breakdown
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’s office expressed concerns about the snapping of communication lines between the two global powers.
“There’s no way that the Secretary-General can solve the most pressing issues of the world without an effective dialogue,” Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in reaction to the news on Friday.
01:57
Taiwanese leader says island ‘won’t provoke but will firmly defend’ amid mainland military drills
More than 80 PLA jets and warships in Taiwan Strait
The Taiwanese military said as of 5pm it had monitored the movements of 68 PLA warplanes and 13 warships in surrounding waters. These had also crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, prompting the island’s military to scramble jets and navy ships, and to deploy missiles, to warn them off.
White House calls in Chinese envoy
The White House summoned Chinese ambassador Qin Gang on Thursday to condemn escalating actions against Taiwan and reiterate that the United States does not want a crisis in the region, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
“After China’s actions overnight, we summoned Ambassador Qin Gang to the White House to démarche him about [Beijing’s] provocative actions,” White House spokesman John Kirby told The Washington Post.
Cyberattacks in Taiwan
Websites in Taiwan, including those of its defence and foreign affairs ministries, have gone offline amid heightened tension with Beijing and as mainland China holds military exercises in areas surrounding the island.
The websites of Taiwan’s National Defence Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry went down in the early hours of Friday but were soon back online. Both sites were also inaccessible late on Wednesday night.
Lo Ping-cheng, Taiwan Cabinet spokesman, said on Thursday attack traffic during this period was about twice as high as past attacks.
“The peak was on Tuesday, and the attack traffic was 23 times the previous peak,” Lo said.
Lo said targets of recent cyberattacks on government departments include Taiwan’s presidential office and the defence and foreign affairs ministries.
Lo said Taipei had launched a response mechanism to strengthen protection and so far, there had been no information security hazards.
Sand, fruit, fish hit as China ramps up bans on Taiwan in wake of Pelosi trip
PLA says US carrier retreated
Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defence University, was quoted by state broadcaster CCTV as saying the PLA’s aircraft carrier formation and nuclear submarines were taking part in the large-scale drills near the island
It is unclear whether both the Liaoning or Shandong were taking part in the drills, and the ships’ locations were not known.
02:46
Mainland China launches largest military drill in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi’s visit
He said the PLA monitored Pelosi’s flight as it took off from Malaysia on Tuesday. He said Pelosi’s flight circled over the Philippines before going to Songshan airport in Taipei.
The US Navy on Thursday said the USS Ronald Reagan was conducting scheduled operations in the Philippine Sea in the Western Pacific, a 5.7 million sq km (2.2 million square-mile) stretch of ocean that includes waters southeast of Taiwan.
“USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are under way in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a US Navy Seventh Fleet spokesperson said.
Second day of drills
The PLA Eastern Theatre Command said drills continued on Friday in naval and airspace north, southwest and east of Taiwan.
The exercises are aimed at testing joint combat readiness of the military, it said.
The PLA said it conducted precision strikes in specific areas east of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and multiple conventional missile launches that afternoon.
“The images of the strike captured by the drones in real time show that the rockets accurately hit the target,” the report said.
Three PLA drones were spotted flying over waters off the northeast coast of Taiwan while the PLA was staging live-fire drills encircling the self-ruled island on Thursday.
Another unidentified UAV, presumed to be a PLA drone, flew from the East China Sea and circled the high seas off the northeast coast of Taiwan, it said, adding that the Japan Self Defence Force scrambled fighter jets in responses.
The war games will continue until noon on Sunday.
Who will fly Taiwan’s fighter jets? Pilot shortage dire as PLA tests defences
‘Disproportionate and unjustified’: US
China’s firing of missiles around Taiwan was a disproportionate, significant and unjustified escalation and the United States had made it repeatedly clear to China it was not seeking a crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
02:22
White House condemns Chinese missile launches over Taiwan as ‘significant escalation’
Beijing protests to European envoys
Deng Li, a vice-foreign minister in charge of European matters, told the European diplomats the statement was a “political provocation” to the Chinese side and a “wrong signal” sent to “separatist forces in Taiwan”, according to an official readout from the ministry.
“The European side has not only condemned the US for inciting separation of China and intensifying tensions in the Taiwan Strait, but also said it would stick to the one China policy ‘where applicable’,” he said.
He said the statement severely undermined the “political basis” of the bilateral ties.
The statement by G7 foreign ministers and the EU High Representative called on China “not to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the region”.
Deng also summoned Japan’s top envoy in Beijing for a similar protest. He added that since Japan had colonised Taiwan for a long period, it should be even more careful on Taiwan-related remarks since Tokyo bore a “serious historical guilt” on the issue.
Air-launched missiles
On Thursday, Beijing said it had conducted precision strikes in specific areas east of the Taiwan Strait and multiple conventional missile launches near the island.
The strikes mark the first time PLA missiles have flown over Taiwan since the cross-strait crisis of 1995-1996, when Beijing fired missiles in retaliation for a visit by then-president Lee Teng-hui to the United States.
Analysts said the PLA could send bombers with air-launched missiles, such as long-range CJ-20 cruise missiles.
The CJ-20 has a range of around 2,000km (1,240 miles) and is a variant of the CJ-10, a second-generation ground-based land-attack missile.
Beijing’s war games after Pelosi’s Taiwan trip spark South China Sea concerns
Japan concerned about missiles
Tokyo said five Chinese missiles appeared to have fallen in the country’s exclusive economic zone, with four of those believed to have flown over Taiwan’s main island.
“I told her that we have called for the immediate cancellation of the military drills.”
02:30
People living in mainland China’s Xiamen city react to PLA drills and Pelosi visit to Taiwan
Carriers leave home
The aircraft carrier Liaoning left Qingdao, Shandong province, on Sunday while the Shandong set out from Sanya, Hainan province, on Monday, according to Taiwanese media.
Photos circulating on social media indicated the Liaoning returned to Qingdao on Thursday but this could not be verified.
China military operations around Taiwan show intent to change status quo: US
More movement
More personnel may take part on the second day.
An American MH-60R anti-submarine Seahawk helicopter entered an area to the southwest of Taiwan, according to photos posted to Twitter.
Additional reporting by Kate Zhang, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
