China halts military, climate change talks, sanctions Pelosi
▶ 8 ‘unprecedented’ countermeasures show resolve in protecting core interest
China on Friday announced eight countermeasures in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s highly provocative visit to the island of Taiwan, including canceling China-US theater commanders talk, defense policy coordination talks, military maritime security consultative mechanism and suspending cooperation on illegal immigration repatriation, drug control and climate change.
It also announced Friday to sanction Pelosi and her immediate family members as she insisted on visiting Taiwan in disregard of China’s serious concerns and firm opposition, making her the highest-ranking US politician sanctioned by China. Analysts said that all of China’s countermeasures are “unprecedented” and “very necessary” and they showcased China’s strong opposition to the US’ violation of its bottom line. They warned that cancellations of exchange mechanisms of the two militaries at multiple levels may lead to more clashes if the US keeps making provocations, and US politicians should stop maniac actions and stop sowing chaos around the world.
The eight countermeasures made by China are
listed as canceling China-US theater commanders talks, China-US defense policy coordination talks and China-US military maritime consultative agreement meetings.
Also, they include suspending China-US cooperation on the repatriation of illegal immigrants; suspending China-US cooperation on legal assistance in criminal matters; suspending China-US cooperation against transnational crimes; suspending China-US counternarcotics cooperation, and suspending China-US talks on climate change.
All the cancellation in three aspects is related to the working mechanisms between the Chinese and US militaries, which means that the mutual trust between the two militaries has dived to the bottom, and military-to-military relations have plunged to a low ebb and the risks of conflicts are increasing, said Lü Xiang, an expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
All the security needs – including the plane Pelosi flew on this time – were provided by the US Defense Department, and the US military and Defense Department damaged China’s sovereignty and security in this way, which made military-to-military communication no longer meaningful, he said.
Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, said that as the US has made provocations on the Taiwan question, which is China’s core interest, bottom line and cornerstone of bilateral relations and China is taking actions to safeguard its sovereignty, any more provocations from the US will increase the possibility of clashes.
The PLA on Thursday commenced the second phase of its large-scale military exercises that completely locked down the island of Taiwan.
Through three-day military drills, the PLA demonstrated the determination and capability of solving the Taiwan question at any time, but it also showed its anti-aggression and area defense capabilities. The cancelation in three aspects also means that based on those capabilities, the PLA could take any countermeasures against any offensive actions by the US military, based on how the situation evolves, Lü said.
“The cancellation also sent a clear signal to the US that the Chinese side will never accept the US blatantly damaging China-US relations without bearing any consequences,” Lü said.
The suspension in five areas has much a bigger impact on the US compared with China, especially in climate change, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.
Since US President Joe Biden took office, he has made significant diplomatic progress in climate change, where any progress requires support and cooperation with China, otherwise, the US won’t achieve anything by itself, Xin said.
The other areas such as repatriation of illegal immigrants and cooperation in drug control are of much concern to the US with a relatively small impact on China, the expert said. For example, on drug control cooperation especially in fighting the Fentanyl issue, less cooperation will make the drug problem more significant in the US but will have little effect on China.
The suspensions in these areas are a warning to the White House as it did not take measures to stop Pelosi’s visit, instead, it played “good cop and bad cop” and required China not to overreact. Biden’s promises to China have not been fulfilled, said Qi Kai, an expert at the China University of Political Science and Law.
He also noted that China’s countermeasures also aim to deter countries and politicians in other countries who are mulling a visit to the island of Taiwan that tramples on China’s core interest in following Pelosi’s suit.
UK’s House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee is planning a visit to Taiwan probably in November or early December, The Guardian reported.
Many practical areas where the US and China can work together have been put on hold now, which means that if the US continues damaging China’s interests in the future, these cooperation measures will also be cancelled, said a Beijing-based expert on international affairs who preferred not to be named.
Such unprecedented countermeasures from China showed that the consequences of Pelosi’s visit to the island of Taiwan continued expanding, and the already affected trust mechanism between China and the US has been further damaged. In the future, the resumption of these eight mechanisms requires long-term, hard negotiations, analysts said. “China’s countermeasures also deliver a signal to Washington: to cool down and carefully think about what kind of China-US relations the US wants?” Lü asked.