The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
5 Chinese govt, political bodies condemn Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan
BEIJING / XIAMEN, China — Five Chinese government and political bodies, including the foreign and defense ministries, took concerted action late Tuesday night by issuing statements condemning U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan shortly a er she arrived on the island.
e Chinese military also started joint exercises in the vicinity of Taiwan on Tuesday night and is set to conduct live- re drills at six locations around the island from ursday as part of “important military exercises and training activities.”
e Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress; the Foreign A airs Committee of the country’s top political advisory body, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; and the Taiwan Work O ce of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee also issued statements of condemnation.
In China, there have been cases in the past in which multiple government and political organizations release statements when an issue is deemed a major diplomatic matter. When the Japanese government nationalized the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture in September 2012, several
such entities issued statements.
e Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns late Tuesday night to lodge a protest over Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
In a statement released Tuesday, China’s Defense Ministry said it “strongly condemns and
rmly opposes” the visit. It added, “e Chinese People’s Liberation Army is on high alert and will take a series of targeted military operations” in response.
On Tuesday night, the Chinese military’s Eastern eater Command, which covers Taiwan, announced naval-air
joint drills in the northern, southwestern and southeastern waters and airspace o Taiwan as well as live- re drills in the Taiwan Strait and o eastern Taiwan.
According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, a total of 21 Chinese military planes, including ghter jets and early warning aircra , entered the air defense identi cation zone in southwest Taiwan on Tuesday.
In the early hours of Wednesday, some aircra , believed to be Chinese military planes, were spotted ying from the Taiwan Strait toward China over Xiamen, Fujian Province,
a city that faces the strait.
Pelosi le Taiwan on Wednesday evening, but China is expected to continue to apply military pressure.
CHINESE MEDIA SLAP U.S.
e Chinese media also intensely criticized the United States over Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
e Global Times, which is under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s agship newspaper, released an editorial in its online edition about an hour a er Pelosi’s arrival on Taiwan. “is time, the whole world has seen clearly ... who is undermining crossStraits peace and stability,” the editorial reads. “[Pelosi’s] dangerous provocative actions welded the entire responsibility for undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits to the U.S. and the DPP [Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party] authorities.”
On Wednesday morning, Chinese authorities were on high alert with more than 30 police vehicles placed around the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Apparently out of concerns over anti-U.S. protests, more than 30 law enforcement personnel, including plainclothes police o cers, kept their eyes on passersby and others.
In Xiamen, a 47-year-old taxi driver said: “I have friends in Taiwan. Ordinary Chinese people don’t want confrontation between the United States and China.”
EEZ INCLUDED IN TARGET AREA
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Wednesday that Japan expressed concern to China that the target area of military exercises planned by Beijing includes part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
e Chinese military has announced plans to conduct a series of exercises this week to put military pressure on Taiwan as U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan as part of an Asian tour.
“We strongly urge a peaceful resolution of the cross-strait issue,” Matsuno said at a press conference. (Aug. 4)