China tears into U.S. for ‘indulging’ and ‘colluding’ with Nancy Pelosi and summons the American Ambassador over her Taiwan trip: Democrat’s hotel surrounded by security after Beijing sent 20 fighter jets into island airspace
- Chinese officials summoned U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns in the middle of the night for a meeting to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan
- Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng slammed Pelosi’s stop
- He said Biden’s government should have ‘restrained Pelosi’s unscrupulous move and prevented her from going’ but instead ‘indulged her and colluded with her’
- The White House tried to tamp down the situation
- ‘The United States will not seek and does not want a crisis,’ said White House spokesperson John Kirby
- ‘There’s just no reason to amp this up,’ Kirby said
- Pelosi’s Air Force plane – with its distinctive blue and white colors and American flag on the tail – touched down in Taipei at 10:45 pm local time
- The speaker’s hotel in Taipei was surrounded by security as China backed up their warnings with a show of force, including live-fire drills
- Follow DailyMail.com’s live coverage of Pelosi’s visit HERE
Chinese officials summoned U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns in the middle of the night for a meeting to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.
Burns was summoned to appear by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, who is specifically in charge of managing China’s relationship with the United States.
Pelosi’s visit infuriated Beijing, who repeatedly warned Pelosi not to make a stop there during her South Asia tour. Chinese officials called the visit a ‘violation of the one-China principle.’
In the summons, Xie stressed the ‘nature of Pelosi’s visit is extremely vicious and the consequence is very grave. The Chinese side will not sit idly by,’ Chinese state media reported.
Xie said President Joe Biden’s government should have ‘restrained Pelosi’s unscrupulous move and prevented her from going against the historical trend but instead indulged her and colluded with her.’
‘China will take necessary and resolute countermeasures and we mean what we say,’ Xie said.
The White House said they know Burns has been in discussions with the Chinese but refused to confirm the middle-of-the-night meeting.
‘We know that Ambassador Burns has had discussions with his Chinese interlocutors, but I’d refer you to the State Department in terms of being summoned in the middle of the night,’ said White House spokesperson John Kirby at Tuesday’s press briefing.
Biden’s administration tried to tamp down the situation. Officials have said repeatedly that Pelosi made an independent decision to go to Taiwan. China sees the self-governing island nation as its own territory. Chinese President Xi Jinping has threatened to unite the two nations by force.
‘The United States will not seek and does not want a crisis. We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do,’ Kirby said. ‘There’s just no reason to amp this up.’
He noted that the U.S. does not ‘support Taiwan independence’ and pointed out the Biden administration has communicated this repeatedly, including by the president himself in his two-hour call last week with Xi.
Kirby said there was no reason for ‘Beijing to turn this visit – which is consistent with long-standing U.S. policy – into some sort of crisis, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait. Now or beyond her travel.’
Pelosi’s Air Force plane – with its distinctive blue and white colors and American flag on the tail – touched down in Taipei at 10:45 pm local time.
Her visit makes her the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years.
Security is tight as all sides ramped up their military presence. Biden’s had a prickly relationship with China since he entered the White House but as tensions between Washington D.C. and Beijing have escalated since there were reports Pelosi would drop by the island.
The speaker’s hotel in Taipei was surrounded by security as China backed up their warnings with a show of force, including live-fire drills.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu greeted Speaker Nancy Pelosi upon her arrival
Police officers line up outside the Grand Hyatt hotel as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan amid Chinese fury
Chinese officials summoned U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns (left) in the middle of the night for a meeting to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan; Burns was summoned to appear by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng (right), who is specifically in charge of managing China’s relationship with the United States
The White House tried to tamp down the situation: ‘The United States will not seek and does not want a crisis,’ said White House spokesperson John Kirby. ‘There’s just no reason to amp this up’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted a photo of the Congressional delegation’s arrival in Taipei with the words: ‘Our visit reiterates that America stands with Taiwan: a robust, vibrant democracy and our important partner in the Indo-Pacific’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi disembarking from her Air Force jet in Taiwan
Police officers stand guard outside Grand Hyatt hotel as demonstrators take part in a protest against U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in Taipei
Surrounded: China is planning live fire military exercises around Taiwan from August 4-7, the Xinjua News Agency announced
Soon after Pelosi landed, Beijing said the People’s Liberation Army would hold military exercises around the island – despite pleas from the White House to tone it down.
The exercises will take place from August 4 to 7, when the PLA ‘will conduct important military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills in the following maritime areas and their air space bounded by lines joining,’ according to the state Xinjua News Agency.
Additionally, Taipei claimed that more than 20 Chinese military planes entered Taiwan’s airspace on day of Pelosi’s visit. As the speaker’s Air Force C40 approached Taipei, Chinese Air Force Su-35 fighter jets were crossing the Taiwan Straits, local media outlets reported.
And chilling footage shared on Chinese social network Weibo appears to show amphibious tanks on the coast of Fujian along the Taiwan Strait. Further footage showed military equipment on the move in the city of Xiamen.
Biden’s administration downplayed Beijing’s military moves.
‘What I would tell you is that what we’ve seen thus far, and she just arrived, is consistent with the playbook that we expected them to, to run, and we’ll just keep watching it,’ Kirby said.
But, he said, the White House will ensure Pelosi’s safety.
‘We’re going to make sure that Speaker Pelosi trip – the whole trip – is safe and secure for her,’ Kirby said.
Pelosi said her trip was to show America’s committment to democracy.
‘Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy,’ Pelosi said in a statement released shortly after she landed.
Eight US F-15 fighter jet and five tanker aircraft took off from a U.S. base in Okinawa to provide protection for Pelosi’s flight, NHK reported.
Taiwan gave Pelosi a warm welcome. The island’s tallest building, TAIPEI 101, lit up with a welcome message for Speaker Pelosi and supporters held welcome signs out of the hotel she will reportedly stay in.
Her visit, which was never publicly announced due to security reasons, is part of a broader trip she is taking to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
‘Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,’ Pelosi said.
And she reaffirmed America’s one-China policy.
‘Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo,’ she noted.
Taipei claimed that more than 20 Chinese military planes entered Taiwan’s airspace on day of Pelosi’s visit
Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her car arriving at her hotel in Taipei, where she was cheered on by locals
Supporters hold a banner outside the hotel where U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is supposed to be staying in Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan’s tallest building, TAIPEI 101, lit up with a welcome message for Speaker Pelosi
A US military aircraft with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on board prepares to land at Sungshan Airport in Taipei
Chilling footage shared on Chinese social network Weibo appears to show amphibious tanks on the coast of Fujian along the Taiwan Strait
Beijing earlier warned that the United States will ‘pay the price’ if Pelosi visits Taiwan while Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that those U.S. politicians who ‘play with fire’ on the Taiwan issue will ‘come to no good end’.
Amid the intensifying warnings from China over Pelosi’s visit, four US warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, were positioned in waters east of Taiwan on ‘routine’ deployments.
The carrier USS Ronald Reagan had transited the South China Sea and was currently in the Philippines Sea, east of Taiwan and the Philippines and south of Japan, a US Navy official confirmed on Tuesday. The Japanese-based Reagan is operating with a guided missile cruiser, USS Antietam, and a destroyer, USS Higgins.
The US Navy official said the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli was also in the area as part of a deployment to the region that started in early May from its home port of San Diego.
Taipei has vowed to defend itself and dispatch its military forces in reaction to ‘enemy threats’ as risk of Beijing attacking Taiwan grows.
Taiwan has also made strengthening its defenses a priority, with regular military and civil defense drills, including designating air-raid shelters where civilians can take cover if Beijing launches missiles at the democratic island.
Self-governed Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by authoritarian China, which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.
Taiwan has vowed to defend itself and has made strengthening its defenses a priority, with regular military and civil defense drills.
A history of tensions between China and Taiwan: A battle for control and dominance in the semiconductor market that could spark a global supply chain crisis
Just 100 miles separate mainland China and Taiwan – a distance shorter than the gap between Florida and Cuba – but for decades they have been locked in a diplomatic and political battle over control.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that is part of mainland – but the island insists it is a separate nation with its own democratically elected officials and a standing Army.
It sits in the ‘first island chain’ and is surrounded by nations – including Japan and South Korea – who are friendly to the U.S.
Nancy Pelosi and the controversy surrounding her planned trip to Taipei have put the spotlight on the tensions that have been slowly reaching boiling point.
The Biden administration has consistently said they do not back Taiwanese independence and the One-China policy in place since Jimmy Carter has not changed.
Only 13 countries, including the Vatican, recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation.
But actions by previous Presidents including Donald Trump suggest that the diplomatic situation is open to interpretation in the West, angering Beijing.
Taiwan also produces more than 60 percent of the world’s semiconductors – that are critical for operating smartphones, computers and the brake sensors in cars.
A conflict between China and Taiwan could plunge the pair into an economic crisis that could spark a global supply chain meltdown.
When and where did the tensions begin? Centuries of displacement and friction
Taiwan has changed hands since AD 239, when Beijing sent an expedition to explore the area and ended up claiming it as its own.
Between the 13th and early 17th century, the Hoklo and Hakka Chinese people started to settle there fleeing hardship and still make up the largest demographics on the island.
It came to be known as Formosa by European nations when the Dutch set up a colony between 1624 and 1661 and the Spanish built a small enclave in the north of the island in 1626.
In 1662, the island changed hands to and became integrated into the Qing dynasty until 1895 when the Japanese won the First Sino-Japanese War and had to cede the territory to Tokyo – which was then known as Edo.
Modern China was then formed in 1911, after the revolution – and Taiwan insists they were never a formal part.
Just 100 miles separate mainland China and Taiwan – a distance shorter than the gap between Florida and Cuba – but for decades they have been locked in a diplomatic battle
Japan then surrendered the island after their defeat in the Second World War and handed the control of Taiwan back to China – with the backing of western allies including the US and the UK.
But then the Civil War broke out between Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT), and the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong.
Overrun by Mao’s forces, Kai-shek and the remainder of his government fled to Taiwan in 1949 and dominated politics on the island while the communists took over in Beijing.
Taiwan becomes an ally of the United States, which was at war with China in Korea. The United States deployed a fleet in the Taiwan Strait to protect its ally from possible attack from the mainland.
Kai-shek’s son began a process of democratization when there was an uprising by the rest of the people living on the island started to protest.
Since then the island has moved to put more democratic institutions.
After the Second World War, Civil War broke out between Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek (left) and the Kuomintang, and the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong (right)
The ‘One China’ policy: The U.S. and its longstanding position on Taiwan
The policy acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and Taiwan is not an independent or sovereign state.
In 1979, after years of improving relations between the U.S. and China, Jimmy Carter travelled to Beijing to meet leader Deng Xiaoping and severed formal ties with Taipei.
He closed the U.S. embassy and established formal relations with China.
However, Congress also passed the Taiwan Relations Act. The legislation guaranteed that the U.S. would protect the island and help it defend itself – which is why the U.S. sells them arms.
Administrations since Carter’s have recognized the policy and stood by it.
President Biden has insisted Taiwan should be independent, but the there was been remove to remove.
In December 2016, Donald Trump spoke to President Tsai Ing-wen to congratulate her on the election win – breaking three decades of policy precedent and angering China.
Trump noted in the call that the U.S. and Taiwan have ‘close economic, political and security ties’.
The encroachment of the U.S. and their willingness to protect Taiwan has made the Beijing-Washington relationship increasingly tenuous in recent years and ramped up friction in the build-up to Pelosi’s visit.
At the end of July, Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a two-hour call, where Biden underscored that ‘the United States policy has not changed – but strongly opposed unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Xi Jinping fired back at Biden and said ‘those who play with fire will perish by it’ over Taiwan.
In 1979, after years of improving relations between the U.S. and China, Jimmy Carter travelled to Beijing to meet leader Deng Xiaoping and severed formal ties with Taipei
Recent tensions between China and Taiwan – and the back and forth over relations
Chen Shui-bian wa elected Taiwan’s president in 2000, marking the first time in power for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which supports Taiwanese sovereignty and formal independence.
It was a move that marked the start of the island’s slow move towards trying to split from Beijing.
In March 2005, Beijing adopted an anti-secession bill in March that made secession by Taiwan illegal.
That April, leaders of Taiwan’s major opposition KMT and the Communist Party of China meet for the first time since 1949 to try and ease the souring relationship.
In 2008, the KMT-backed President Ma Ying-jeou, who favored closer ties with China, came into power and set aside political disputes to discuss deals ranging from tourism to commercial flights.
But in 2016, Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP won the presidential race on a platform of standing up to China. Months later, Beijing suspended all official communications with Taiwan.
In 2016, Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP won the presidential race on a platform of standing up to China. Months later, Beijing suspended all official communications with Taiwan
Taiwan’s dominance in the semiconductor market – and how a conflict could cause a global crisis
Taiwan manufactured more than 60 percent of the globe’s semiconductors last year, and the industry is now in the spotlight.
The chips allow smartphones, computers and the brake sensors in cars to function.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, counts Apple, Qualcomm and Nvidia as its clients and took in 54 percent of global revenue in 2021.
TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said on Monday August 1 that there would be an economic crisis on both sides of the strait if China and Taiwan entered a conflict.
He told CNN TSMC factories will be rendered ‘non-operable’ in the event of a Chinese attack because the sophisticated manufacturing facilities depend on connections with the rest of the world.
He stressed it would cause a supply chain crisis which would extend as far away as the U.S., which last month passed a bill trying to fix the shortage.
Protesters gather in Taiwan to mark the anniversary of the Chinese crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989
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