China previously said it would impose unspecified sanctions on Nancy Pelosi and her family.
Beijing:
China said on Friday it would end 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 sour on Taiwan .
Beijing has reacted furiously to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which it claims as its territory and has vowed to take it back, by force if necessary.
Since Thursday, it has surrounded the democratic, self-governing island with a series of massive military exercises that have been roundly condemned by the United States and other Western allies.
And on Friday, his foreign ministry hit back further against the United States, suspending talks and cooperation on multiple agreements between the two, including on climate change.
The world’s two biggest polluters last year pledged to work together to speed up climate action this decade and pledged to meet regularly to “address the climate crisis”.
But that deal now looks shaky in light of China’s latest move.
Sounding the alarm, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the two superpowers must continue to work together, for the good of the world.
“For the Secretary-General there is no way to solve the most pressing problems around the world without effective dialogue and cooperation between the two countries,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
In Washington, the White House summoned China’s ambassador to condemn Beijing’s “irresponsible” behavior over Taiwan, a senior US official said on Friday.
Taiwan has also condemned Beijing’s response to the visit, with Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang calling on allies to push for de-escalation.
“We did not expect that the evil next-door neighbor would show his power at our doorstep and arbitrarily endanger the world’s busiest waterways with his military exercises,” he told reporters.
Pelosi, who was also hit with sanctions by Beijing, has defended her trip to Taiwan, saying on Friday that Washington “would not allow” China to isolate the island.
– “Our motherland is powerful” –
Beijing has said its military exercises will continue until midday Sunday, and Taipei reported that 68 Chinese aircraft and 13 warships crossed the “middle line” that runs through the Taiwan Strait on Friday.
AFP reporters on the Chinese island of Pingtan saw a fighter jet fly overhead, prompting tourists to snap photos.
They also added a Chinese military ship sailing through the Taiwan Strait.
China’s drills involved a “conventional missile firepower assault” in waters east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said.
And state broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese missiles flew directly over Taiwan, a major escalation if confirmed.
In Pingtan, local tourists proudly extolled Beijing’s military might against its much smaller neighbor.
“Our motherland is powerful. We are not afraid of having a war with Taiwan, the US or any country in the world,” Liu, a 40-year-old tourist from Zhejiang province, told AFP.
“We hope to unify Taiwan soon,” he added. “We don’t want to start a war, but we’re not afraid of others.”
Wang, a businesswoman, was more optimistic about the prospects for cross-strait ties.
“I hope China can unify Taiwan, but I don’t want war,” he said. “I hope this issue can be resolved in a peaceful way.”
– “Significant Escalation” –
The scale and intensity of China’s exercises have sparked outrage in the United States and other democracies.
“These provocative actions are a significant escalation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after talks with Southeast Asian foreign ministers at an ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh.
“The fact is that the speaker’s visit was peaceful. There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalated military response,” he added.
China’s foreign minister countered by warning Washington not to escalate tensions.
“The US habit is to create a problem and then use that problem to achieve its goals. But this approach will not work with China,” Wang Yi told a news conference on the sidelines of the summit.
“We want to issue a warning to the US not to act hastily and create a bigger crisis.”
Japan has lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against Beijing, with five Chinese missiles believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone.
On Friday, Japan’s foreign ministry said China canceled a planned bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.
And Australia, which has a troubled relationship with China, its main trading partner, condemned the drills as “disproportionate and destabilizing”.
The maneuvers take place along some of the world’s busiest sea routes, used to spread the global supply of semiconductors and vital electronic equipment produced in East Asia.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)