China unveils sanctions on US over visit
Defense, justice, climate change among areas included in Beijing’s latest moves
Beijing announced on Friday its decision to take eight countermeasures in response to Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, covering areas of bilateral collaboration such as defense, justice and climate change.
According to the list of countermeasures issued by the Foreign Ministry, China decided to cancel three cooperative dialogues or meetings between the two nations’ defense authorities or militaries.
In addition, Beijing suspended twoway judicial cooperation in areas such as illegal immigrants, cross-border crimes and narcotics, as well as bilateral consultation on climate change.
On Friday, China also announced its decision to impose sanctions against Pelosi and her immediate family members in accordance with relevant laws of China, in response to Pelosi’s provocative moves.
In disregard of China’s serious concern and firm opposition, Pelosi insisted on visiting Taiwan, which “constitutes gross interference in China’s internal affairs, gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits”, an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
On Thursday, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of pushing to change the status quo.
The current situation was “entirely prompted” by Pelosi and US politicians, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news conference on Friday. “The US is the initiator of this crisis”, and it has disregarded warnings sent by China and the rest of the international community prior to Pelosi’s visit, she added.
Su Hao, a professor of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University, said that what lay behind Washington accusing Beijing of changing the status quo is its hypocrisy and its actions that betrayed its commitments on the Taiwan question and on improving China-US relations.
“In their recent talks with the Chinese side, both US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the US does not support ‘Taiwan independence’. However, it was Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan that stirred up tensions in the Taiwan Straits,” he said.