China responds to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan with military maneuvers
“The danger for Taiwan is great because the West is now bound in Ukraine”
It was “a good signal overall” that Nancy Pelosi had traveled to Taiwan, according to Roderich Kiesewetter, CDU, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. But he warns: “We have to be careful not to overreact.”
US leader Nancy Pelosi met with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan on Wednesday. China responded with aggressive military exercises around the island nation. The maneuver with 21 warplanes is larger than the exercises during the missile crisis in 1995.
DThe Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has pledged US support for Taiwan in the face of the Chinese threat. At a joint press conference with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on Wednesday, the US leader said the US will “always stand by Taiwan’s side.” The visit of the congress delegation to Taiwan shows “that we will not give up our commitments to Taiwan”.
Referring indirectly to Beijing’s communist leadership’s threats against Taiwan, Pelosi said, “More than ever, American solidarity is crucial.” That was the message of her congressional delegation’s visit. US support for Taiwan is bipartisan. “Today the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy,” Pelosi said, praising Taiwan as “one of the freest societies in the world.”
Shortly after Pelosi landed, China’s military began target practice maneuvers in six sea areas surrounding Taiwan. These began Tuesday night and are expected to last four days. China’s air force headed for Taiwan with 21 warplanes, including fighter jets.
The drills are considered the greatest military muscle flexing since the 1995 missile crisis, when China fired missiles over Taiwan to intimidate and the US deployed two aircraft carrier groups. The sea areas for the exercises go well beyond the restricted zones at the time, reach close to Taiwan and sometimes appear to be encroaching on its sovereign territories.
According to the CNA news agency, the Taiwanese military also spoke of a “serious violation” of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a violation of the country’s sovereignty and fears a sea and air blockade.
Nancy Pelosi (left) with Tsai Ing-wen
Source: Getty Images/Handouts
Taiwan’s president said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drew international attention to the conflict with China over Taiwan. The situation in the Taiwan Strait has implications for security in the Asia-Pacific region. “Taiwan will not back down,” Tsai said, noting the threat from China. “We will do whatever is necessary to strengthen our self-defense capabilities.”
Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday. The stay of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives is the highest-ranking visit from the United States to the island’s democratic republic in a quarter of a century. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic and strictly rejects official contacts from other countries to Taipei.
Röttgen criticized the timing of the trip
CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen believes the timing of US top politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was wrong. “There is more than enough international tension at the moment due to the Russian war of aggression. In this situation, Pelosi’s visit has a purely symbolic meaning, which in turn China inevitably feels provoked by,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND/Wednesday). However, Röttgen described “China’s threatening gestures in view of Nancy Pelosi’s visit” as completely unacceptable.
The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Michael Roth (SPD), praised Pelosi’s visit. “This visit is neither aggressive nor provocative. Otherwise, the government in Taipei would not have issued an invitation either, because the Taiwanese know best what endangers their interests and security,” he told the newspapers of Mediengruppe Bayern. The foreign policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Ulrich Lechte, said: “It is very welcome that Nancy Pelosi was not impressed by Beijing’s attempts at intimidation.”
The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction, Jürgen Hardt, also praised the trip. “We cannot avoid conflict with China over key issues. Taiwan is one of those issues. I have nothing to criticize about this trip,” he told the media group.
Left-wing politician Gregor Gysi, on the other hand, is critical of the trip. He told the Watson news portal: “In the interests of the people of Taiwan, any provocation by Western countries should be avoided.” China will leave Taiwan alone as long as it sees no threat to the one-China policy.
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