Nancy Pelosi during her visit to Taiwan as part of her Asia tour.Nancy Pelosi Taiwan visit Live Updates: Taiwan scrambled jets on Friday to warn away 49 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, the Taiwanese defence ministry said, Reuters reported. At least 30 Chinese aircrafts crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, a ministry statement said.
China will not be able to isolate Taiwan by preventing the United States officials from traveling there, US. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Tokyo as she wrapped up an Asia tour that has escalated tensions in the region, Reuters reported. “They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” she said, defending her trip to the island nation that infuriated China. Pelosi said her visit to Taiwan was not intended to change the status quo for the island but to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and mainland China.
Earlier in the day, China said it is suspending dialogue with the United States on issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation for a visit this week to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to AP. This response is the latest in a series of targeted steps intended to punish Washington for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory.
This come as China continues to hold threatening military exercises in six zones off Taiwan’s coasts. China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan, including missiles fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, represent a “significant escalation,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday. China’s military drills were launched following a visit earlier this week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan that infuriated Beijing. Beijing announced sanctions on Pelosi and her family for her Taipei visit.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center, walks with Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, left, as she arrives in Taipei, Taiwan, Aug. 2, 2022. (Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said India is unlikely to be impacted by any adverse developments in Taiwan. The Governor said Taiwan accounts for only 0.7 per cent of India’s overall trade and the capital flows from the island are also not very high.
“…so far as India is concerned, you know, our trade with Taiwan is miniscule. It’s about 0.7 per cent of our total trade. So therefore the impact on India is expected to be very, very, very negligible,” Das told reporters here. (With PTI)
Taiwan scrambled jets on Friday to warn away 49 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, the Taiwanese defence ministry said, Reuters reported. At least 30 Chinese aircrafts crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, a ministry statement said.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday said her visit to Taiwan was not intended to change the status quo for the island but to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and mainland China.
She praised Taiwan's hard-fought democracy and success in technology and business, while criticizing Chinese violations of trade agreements, weapons proliferation and human rights problems, including its treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority.
China will not be able to isolate Taiwan by preventing US officials from traveling there, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Tokyo as she wrapped up an Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taipei that infuriated Beijing. Beijing has tried to isolate Taiwan, including by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization, Pelosi said.
“They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” she said, defending her trip that has escalated tensions in the region.
China on Thursday (August 4) launched aggressive and unprecedented military exercises near Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
▶️The “porcupine doctrine”
The “porcupine doctrine”, which was proposed in 2008 by US Naval War College research professor William S Murray, is a strategy of asymmetric warfare focused on fortifying a weak state’s defences to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses rather than taking on its strengths.
▶️Asymmetric systems of defence
In its 2021 Quadrennial Defence Review, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence defined asymmetric systems as ones that are “small, numerous, smart, stealthy, mobile and hard to be detected and countered”, and “associated with innovative tactics and employments”. According to Taiwan’s former Chief of the General Staff Admiral Lee Hsi-ming, these systems are “a large number of small things”.
▶️The need for such a strategy
China enjoys overwhelming military superiority over Taiwan. Over the past decade, Beijing has developed far more accurate and precise weapon systems to target Taiwan and has been vocal about its intention to “reunite” the island with the mainland, by force or coercion if needed.
▶️How easy will it be for China?
Missile strikes, cyberattacks, air and naval blockade aside, undertaking a full-scale invasion across the Taiwan Strait, with attendant risks of anti-ship and anti-air attacks, could present challenges for China. The PLA is estimated to have air and naval resources to carry out an initial landing of 25,000 or more troops, which could increase if it deploys civilian ships to meet its military objectives. However, it will have to first select and secure a suitable beachhead from among the handful that is available.
➡️ Will cancel dialogues between US and China military leaders.
➡️ Will suspend US-China cooperation on cross-border crime prevention.
➡️ Will suspend US-China maritime safety mechanism talks.
China on Friday said that it is cancelling several defence meetings and suspending key climate talks with the US after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit.
China has announced unspecified sanctions on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her visit earlier this week to Taiwan.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Friday that Pelosi had disregarded China’s concerns and resolute opposition to her visit to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims.
The Chinese statement called Pelosi’s visit provocative and said it undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It said that sanctions would be imposed on Pelosi and her immediate family but did not say what they would be. Such sanctions are generally mostly symbolic in nature.
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Chinese foreign ministry has said that it will sanction Nancy Pelosi over her Taiwan visit, reported news agency Reuters.
Japanese officials' recent statements on the current tensions in the Taiwan Strait were an attempt to justify the 'wrongdoers', Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday during a regular briefing.
The harsh remarks from Beijing come after foreign ministers of G7 nations - including Japan - called on China on Wednesday to resolve tension around the Taiwan Strait in a peaceful manner, prompting China to cancel a planned meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart on the sidelines of ASEAN events in Cambodia. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that China's military exercises aimed at Taiwan including missiles fired into Japan's exclusive economic zone represent a “significant escalation.”
“China has chosen to overreact and use Speaker Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait," Blinken said at a news conference in the Cambodian capital. Blinken also said the US stands in “strong solidarity” with Japan following the “dangerous actions China has taken.” (Reuters)
China's firing of missiles around Taiwan is a disproportionate, significant, and unjustified escalation and the United States has made it repeatedly clear to China it does not seek a crisis, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
Blinken told a news conference on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum that the United States would not be provoked by China and Washington was seriously concerned, adding "there was no possible justification for what they have done." (Reuters)
About 10 Chinese navy ships and 20 military aircraft briefly crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Friday morning, a Taiwan source briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Around 10 Chinese navy ships crossed the median line and remained in the area on Friday morning, and about 20 Chinese military aircraft briefly crossed the median line, said the person, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Earlier, Taiwan's defence ministry said the island's military has dispatched aircraft and ships and deployed land-based missile systems to monitor the situation there, as China conducts large-scale military drills in zones surrounding Taiwan. (Reuters)
On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area. Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let's take Taiwan back," looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot, reported news agency Reuters.
China said it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the European Union criticising threatening Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.
The Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li made “solemn representations” over what he called “wanton interference in China's internal affairs”.
China had earlier summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi's visit. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an Asian meeting of top diplomats on Friday that China's reaction to US house speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was "flagrantly provocative", a western official said.
Blinken, speaking at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, said China had sought to intimidate not only Taiwan, but neighbours too, after it launched the largest-ever military drills in the Taiwan Strait, the official said. (Reuters)
China is staging live-fire military drills in six self-declared zones surrounding Taiwan in response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island Beijing claims as its own territory.
China has warned aircraft and ships to avoid the areas during the exercises, which run through Sunday. The drills appear to be a rehearsal for a potential blockade and invasion of the island that would almost certainly draw in Taiwan’s chief supporter, the United States, along with American allies including Japan and Australia.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh on Thursday. The meeting comes at a time when US-China tension is high over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, which took place on the margins of an ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Blinken referred to concerns over “challenges” in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and the situation in the Indo-Pacific.
Taiwan's defence ministry said on Friday the island's military has dispatched aircraft and ships and deployed land-based missile systems to monitor the situation, as China conducts large-scale military drills in zones surrounding Taiwan.
Multiple Chinese vessels and aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line on Friday morning the defence ministry said, which described China's military activities as highly provocative.
Taiwan's military will prepare combat readiness but will not ask for a war, the defence ministry added. (Reuters)
News agency AFP shared a video of Chinese military helicopters flying past the Pingtan island, which is one of mainland China's closest points to Taiwan, on Thursday.