by ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ZEKE MILLER and DAVID RISING
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — China cut ties with the U.S. on important issues on Aug. 5 — including military affairs and critical climate cooperation — amid fears that the Communist government’s response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi A hostile response to a visit to Taiwan could herald a lasting, more positive approach to its U.S. rival and self-governing island.
China’s move to freeze key lines of communication intensified Pelosi’s visit and China’s response to military exercises near Taiwan, including launching missiles that splashed into surrounding waters, adding to the deterioration in relations between the two countries.
After the White House summoned Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang to protest the military exercise, White House spokesman John Kirby denounced the decision to end an important dialogue with the United States as “irresponsible.”
A White House spokesman slammed China’s “provocative” actions since Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory. But Kirby noted that some lines of communication between military officials from both countries remain open. He reiterated every day that the U.S. had not changed its policy toward the communist mainland and self-governing islands.
“The bottom line is that we will continue to work hard to maintain open lines of communication and protect our interests and values,” Kirby said. He declined to talk about any damage to long-term Sino-U.S. relations, saying that would be discussed later.
Taiwan has put its troops on alert and held civil defense exercises, but overall sentiment remained calm on August 5. Flights have been canceled or diverted, and fishermen remain in port to avoid Chinese drills.
On the coast of China across from Taiwan, tourists gather to try and get a glimpse of military aircraft.
Jing Quan, minister of the Chinese embassy in Washington, told reporters that Pelosi’s mission to support Taiwan’s democratic government “has had a serious impact on the political foundation of China-US relations, seriously violated China’s sovereignty and (territorial) integrity and … undermined Taiwan” peace and stability in the Strait.”
In the long run, a decidedly more confrontational relationship between the U.S. and China threatens a balance in which the administrations of President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are at odds over human rights, trade, competition and countless other issues, But direct conflict has been avoided and occasional high-level engagement has been maintained on other matters, including reducing climate-damaging emissions.
The joint U.S.-China deal on climate change reached by Xi Jinping and then-President Barack Obama in November 2014 was seen as a turning point that led to the landmark 2015 Paris agreement in which nearly every country in the world pledged to try to curb the heat sink. gas emissions. Seven years later, during climate talks in Glasgow, another US-China deal has helped remove obstacles to another international climate deal.
China and the United States are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 climate polluters, and together they produce nearly 40 percent of fossil fuel emissions.
Ominously, China-US relations experts have warned that China’s diplomatic and military actions, which appear to go beyond retaliatory measures for the visit, could usher in a new, more openly hostile and uncertain era for Taiwan’s democratic government. period.
Bonnie Glaser, head of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund, said Sino-U.S. relations are “in a downward spiral.”
“I think China may change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait in a way that is bad for Taiwan and bad for the United States,” Glaser said.
John Culver, a former East Asian national intelligence officer, noted that in recent years, several other rounds of tensions between China and its neighbors on the Indian border, regional islands and the South China Sea have led to new territorial claims and enforcement by China. And ended. Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. The same could happen now in Taiwan, Culver said.
“So I don’t know how this will end. We’ve seen how it starts.”
China’s measure is the latest move aimed at punishing the United States for allowing access to islands it claims as its territory and annexing by force if necessary. China launched threatening military exercises off the coast of Taiwan from August 4 to 7.
Chinese officials told state media that some missiles were fired over Taiwan — significantly increasing the Chinese threat to the island.
China has often complained when Taiwan has direct contact with foreign governments, but its response to Pelosi’s visit – she is the highest-ranking U.S. official in 25 years – has been unusually strong.
That appeared to undermine a rare piece of encouraging news — high-level face-to-face meetings between senior officials in recent months, including defence ministers at the Asian Security Conference in Singapore and foreign ministers at the G20 meeting. Wang Yi and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Indonesia.
The talks were seen as a step in a positive direction in an otherwise toxic relationship. Now, the climate talks, where the envoys of the two countries have met several times, have also been suspended.
China has not disrupted economic and trade talks, and it is seeking Biden to remove tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on imports from China.
China’s foreign ministry said on Aug. 5 that it would cancel dialogues between Chinese and U.S. regional commanders and the heads of the defense ministry, as well as military and maritime security talks. The ministry said it would suspend cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change.
China’s move comes ahead of a major congress of the ruling Communist Party later this year, with President Xi expected to receive a third five-year term as Communist Party leader. With the economy languishing, the Communist Party has fomented nationalism and launched an almost daily attack on the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which refuses to recognize Taiwan as part of China.
China said more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships had participated in live-fire military exercises around Taiwan over the past two days. In addition, major symbolic sanctions against Pelosi and her family were announced.
Off the coast of China, fighter jets can be heard flying overhead and tourists taking pictures chanting “let’s bring Taiwan back”, looking out over the azure waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island, a famous scenic spot in China’s Fujian province.
Pelosi’s visit stirred up emotions in the Chinese public, and the government’s response “made us feel that the motherland is very strong and made us believe that Taiwan’s return is an irresistible trend,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang province.
China is a “powerful country, and it will not allow anyone to invade its own territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student who visited the island.
China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and threats to use force to regain control have been featured in Communist Party statements, the education system and state-controlled media for more than seven decades since a civil war divided the two sides in 1949.
Taiwanese residents overwhelmingly favor maintaining a de facto independent status quo and reject China’s demands for Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland under Communist Party control.
Outside Taiwan, five missiles fired by China landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone near Hateruma, an island south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan’s missile protest to China was a “serious threat to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”
In Tokyo, where Pelosi ended her Asia tour, she said China could not prevent U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan.
