Pelosi landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, defying a series of angry warnings from Beijing.
Beijing:
China on Tuesday summoned the US ambassador to Beijing to reprimand him over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “outrageous” trip to Taiwan, state media reported.
During his talk with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Feng expressed “strong protests” over Pelosi’s visit to the democratic self-governing island, which China considers part of its territory.
“The move is extremely egregious and the consequences are extremely serious,” Xie told China’s state news agency Xinhua. “China will not stand idly by.”
The trip of Pelosi, the most senior elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, sparked tensions between the world’s two largest economies, and Beijing viewed it as a major provocation.
Xie said the United States will “pay the price for its own mistakes” and urged Washington to “immediately address its wrongdoing and take practical steps to reverse the ill effects of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan,” he said. Xinhua.
Pelosi landed in Taiwan late Tuesday, defying a series of angry warnings from Beijing.
While the Biden administration is reportedly opposed to Pelosi’s stop in Taiwan, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in Washington she had the right to go where she wanted.
The Chinese military said it was “on high alert” and would “launch a series of targeted military actions in response to the visit”. It announced plans for a series of military exercises in the waters around the island to start on Wednesday.
And Taiwan’s defense ministry said more than 21 Chinese military aircraft flew into the island’s air defense identification zone on Tuesday — an area wider than territorial airspace that overlaps with part of China’s own air defense zone.
“Taiwan is the Taiwan of China and Taiwan will eventually return to the embrace of the motherland. Chinese are not afraid of ghosts, pressure and evil,” Xie told Burns, according to Xinhua.
There was no immediate response from Washington.
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