Taipei—Taiwan blasted its “evil neighbor” on Friday after China encircled the island with a series of huge military drills that were condemned by the United States and other Western allies.
Apart from the US, Japan and Australia also rebuked China, which announced sanctions against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family—without providing details on the punitive measures.
Japan lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against Beijing, with five of China’s missiles believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone.
And Australia—which has a troubled relationship with China, its largest trading partner—condemned the drills as “disproportionate and destabilizing”.
“Australia is deeply concerned about the launch of ballistic missiles by China into waters around Taiwan’s coastline,” foreign minister Penny Wong said.
Meanwhile, Beijing on Friday condemned Lithuania’s endorsement of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan this week, calling it “erroneous” and accusing the Baltic NATO nation of violating the one-China principle.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis had been the only high-ranking official from a European Union country to publicly support Pelosi’s trip this week, saying she “has opened the door to Taiwan much wider”.
“Those erroneous remarks made by some Lithuanian politicians further undermine the bilateral relations between China and Lithuania,” China’s diplomatic representation in Vilnius told AFP.
During military exercises on Thursday and Friday, China fired ballistic missiles and deployed fighter jets and warships around Taiwan.
Taipei’s military said 68 Chinese fighter jets and 13 warships crossed the “median line” that runs down the Taiwan Strait during Friday’s military drills by Beijing’s forces.
“(We) condemn the communist military for deliberately crossing the median line of the strait and harassing the sea and air around Taiwan,” the defense ministry said in its latest statement.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army declared multiple no-go danger zones around Taiwan, straddling major shipping lanes in the world and at some points coming within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the island’s shores.
Beijing has said the exercises will continue until midday Sunday.
Also, China said Friday it was ending cooperation with the United States on a litany of key issues including climate change, anti-drug efforts, and military talks, as relations between the two superpowers nosedive over the island of Taiwan.
China’s foreign ministry hit back further, suspending talks and cooperation on multiple agreements between the two—including on fighting climate change.
Beijing has insisted its war games are a “necessary” response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, but Washington countered that China’s leaders had “chosen to overreact”.
Pelosi has defended her trip to the self-ruled, democratic island, saying Friday that Washington would “not allow” China to isolate Taiwan.
“We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in Asia, changing the status quo in Taiwan,” she told reporters in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asia tour.
“As of 11 am, multiple batches of Chinese warplanes and warships conducted exercises around the Taiwan Strait and crossed the median line of the strait,” Taipei’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The median line is an unofficial but once largely adhered-to border that runs down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and China.
Chinese incursions have become more common since Beijing declared in 2020 that the unofficial border no longer existed.
AFP journalists on the Chinese island of Pingtan saw a fighter jet flying overhead, prompting tourists to snap photos as it flew along the coast.
A Chinese military vessel was also visible sailing through the Taiwan Strait, they added.
Taiwan’s premier Su Tseng-chang, meanwhile, called for allies to push for de-escalation.
“(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbor next door would show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardize the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters.
Beijing has in recent years sanctioned several US officials for what it views as acting against its core interests and speaking out on human rights issues in Hong Kong and the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Missiles over Taiwan
China’s drills involved a “conventional missile firepower assault” in waters to the east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said the Chinese military “flew more than 100 warplanes including fighters and bombers” during the exercises, as well as “over 10 destroyers and frigates”.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese missiles had flown directly over Taiwan.
Japan also claimed that of the nine missiles it had detected, four were “believed to have flown over Taiwan’s main island”.
Taipei’s military said it would not confirm missile flight paths, in a bid to protect its intelligence capabilities and not allow China “to intimidate us”.
‘Significant escalation’
China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day take it, by force if necessary.
But the scale and intensity of the drills have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.
“These provocative actions are a significant escalation,” Blinken said after talks with Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Phnom Penh.
“The fact is the speaker’s visit was peaceful. There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate, and escalatory military response,” he added.
The maneuvers are taking place along some of the world’s busiest shipping routes, used to disseminate the global supply of vital semiconductors and electronic equipment produced in East Asia.
“The shutting down of these transport routes—even temporarily—has consequences not only for Taiwan but also trade flows tied to Japan and South Korea,” Nick Marro, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s lead analyst for global trade, wrote in a note.
Taiwan said the drills would disrupt 18 international routes passing through its flight information region while several airlines told AFP they would divert flights.
But markets in Taipei appeared to shrug off the tensions, with the Taiwan Taiex Shipping and Transportation Index, which tracks major
shipping and airline stocks, up 3.7 percent Friday.
And analysts broadly agree that despite all its aggressive posturing, Beijing does not want an active military conflict against the United States and its allies over Taiwan—just yet.
“The last thing Xi wants is an accidental war ignited,” Titus Chen, an associate professor of political science at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, told AFP.
China and the US, the world’s two largest polluters, last year pledged to work together to accelerate climate action this decade and vowed to meet regularly to “address the climate crisis”.
But that deal looks shaky as relations sink to some of their lowest levels in years, as do agreements on everything from talks on military matters to anti-drug cooperation.
Pelosi has defended her trip to Taiwan, saying Friday that Washington would “not allow” China to isolate the island.
Taiwan has also condemned Beijing’s furious response to the visit, with premier Su Tseng-chang calling for allies to push for de-escalation.
“(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbor next door would show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardize the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters.
The maneuvers are taking place along some of the world’s busiest shipping routes, used to disseminate the global supply of vital semiconductors and electronic equipment produced in East Asia.
