China responds with military maneuvers and punishes agricultural imports
Chinese ships surrounded the island of Taiwan on Wednesday and their fighters flew over it menacingly, in what appeared to be a de facto blockade. That’s what United States Congress President Nancy Pelosi had accomplished with her visit to the island that China claims as part of its territory.
“How has Taiwan’s security improved?” left-wing analysts on all television channels asked indignantly. Paradoxically, the leader of Congress, after Vice President Kamala Harris second in line from the White House, has received high praise from the opposition. “Let me say four words that you may not have heard much of,” Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt said with satisfaction, “The speaker is right.”
However, there was one criticism. On a congressional spokeswoman’s first trip to Taiwan since 1997, she was not accompanied by any Republican congressmen, only Democrats. If he had, “his message would have been much stronger,” lamented opposition leader Kevin McCarthy. Upon receiving the Order of the Auspicious Cloud with a Special Grand Cordon “on behalf of Congress”, the 82-year-old congresswoman, who already stood up against China in Tiananmen in 1991, made “unequivocal” the purpose of her controversial visit. “We will not give up our commitment to Taiwan,” he declared.
Since the days of Nixon, the agreement on “strategic ambiguity” that accompanied the “One China” declaration has allowed the island to enjoy a pseudo-independence that has led to decades of economic development under democratic rule. Many fear that this will come to an end. At the time, China promised to seek “by peaceful means” the annexation of the island it had acquired from Japan in 1683 and returned to it in 1895. The Asian giant briefly took control of Taiwan on behalf of the Allies after Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II, but the civil war that followed in mainland China with the Communist Party’s victory turned the island into a haven for the resistance. In the scant 19 hours she spent in Taiwan, dissidents were also present at Pelosi’s meetings.
With the imperialist ambition of China, now the second superpower in the world after the United States, the unification of its historical territory tops the list of its rulers, as happened to Vladimir Putin when he conquered the greatness of Russia and the empire of the Soviet Union. China views the presence of Pelosi, who characterized her official visit and arrived on an aircraft similar to Air Force One, as a negation of the US pledge not to challenge its definition that Taiwan is part of “One China”. Neither the US nor the UN has recognized Taiwan’s independence, although Washington sells it weapons and has promised to defend it militarily against any Chinese aggression.
To some, Pelosi’s “provocation” is equivalent to Ukraine’s flirtation with NATO that justified the Russian invasion. For others, it is exactly the only thing that will contain the Chinese invasion, which is considered inevitable in many areas. “The question is not if it will happen, but when,” US government sources told NBC host Andrea Mitchell.
“Madam President,” Pelosi told the Taiwanese head of state on Wednesday. “I think it’s important to remind some and educate others about how we got here: 43 years ago, with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US made a strong commitment to always stand behind Taipei,” he said. .
The views of the congressmen accompanying him gave a sense of the solidity of his resolution: the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Veterans Committee, the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for discretionary budget spending, and members from the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee and even a diplomat from the State Department.
The White House did not approve the trip, but has been forced to defend it. “China cannot dictate to the US government where they can and cannot travel,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
President Joe Biden is said to have repeated this to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who warned him during their phone call last Thursday that he was “playing with fire”. After seeing the military deployment of the Chinese maneuvers as Pelosi and her delegation left, the White House said it was not surprised. “It’s exactly what we expected,” Kirby replied, almost satisfied.
The Chinese government on Tuesday night summoned US Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns to officially protest the visit that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as “a complete farce violating the country’s sovereignty”. “Whoever insults China will be punished,” he threatened.
His spokesman, Hua Chunying, assured that the maneuvers of the Chinese armed forces would not alter trade or navigation traffic in the Taiwan Strait. “I think they should pay more attention to how American warships and jets approach China’s doorstep with a defiant display of power,” he countered.
Taiwan has had to respond to the deployment of 27 Chinese planes by taking out its own warplanes, claiming that 22 of them crossed the border separating its airspace from the Chinese. If that was the threat, the punishment came with the suspension of several agricultural imports. The Taipei government did not consider it a bad price to pay for the award: “Your presence here strengthens the public’s confidence in the strength of our democracy as the foundation for our alliance with the United States,” the president said. grateful to her Tsai Ing-Wen.
Source: La Verdad
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