CHINA, RUSSIA WARN US ON TAIWAN, CRIMEA
BEIJING—China and Russia separately warned the United States on Tuesday regarding Taiwan and Crimea with Beijing telling Washington to refrain from playing with fire and Moscow warning the US Navy about its deployment in the Black Sea.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a new briefing that China firmly rejects any form of official US and Taiwan contact after Washington issued new guidelines that will enable American officials to meet more freely with Taiwanese officials.
The United States on Friday issued the guidelines further deepening ties with the island and defying Chinese pressure.
On Monday, Taipei reported the biggest incursion of China’s warplanes into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
The defense ministry scrambled aircraft to broadcast warnings to leave and monitored the planes as China’s jets, including 18 fighters, entered the island’s southwest ADIZ for the tenth straight day this month.
Chinese mission
The latest Chinese mission involved 14 J-16 and four J-10 fighters, as well as four H-6K bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons, two antisubmarine aircraft and an early warning aircraft, defense officials said.
Over in Europe, Russia told the United States to make sure that its warships stayed well away from Crimea “for their own good,” calling their deployment in the Black Sea a provocation designed to test Russian nerves.
Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and two
US warships are due to arrive in the Black Sea this week amid an escalation in fighting in eastern Ukraine where government forces have battled Russian-backed troops in a conflict Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people.
Russian forces
The deployment comes as the West sounds the alarm over what it says is a big and unexplained buildup of Russian forces close to Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea.
Russia has said it moves its forces around as it sees fit, including for defensive purposes.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was cited by Russian news agencies on Tuesday as warning US warships in the Black Sea to keep their distance, saying the risk of unspecified incidents was very high.