US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned the fighting near Taiwan as a “significant escalation”.
According to him, the drills launched by China in response to the visit to Taiwan by the speaker of the US House of Representatives “have no justification.”
Beijing, which views Taiwan as its rebel province that will be annexed by force if necessary, sees US officials’ contacts with Taipei as an effort to encourage the island’s long-held de facto independence to become permanent. US representatives rejected this claim.
China, which said the drills were a “necessary” response to Pelosi’s visit, has fired ballistic missiles and deployed fighter jets and warships around Taiwan, declaring multiple no-go zones along some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes .
“These provocative actions are a significant escalation,” Blinken said after talks with Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Phnom Penh.
He said the United States’ position on Taiwan has not changed and that it “will not be provoked” by China’s actions.
Taiwan has had its own administration independent of mainland China since 1949, when the island became a refuge for Kuomintang forces defeated by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War. Officially, Taiwan calls itself the “Republic of China”, not recognizing the legitimacy of the People’s Republic of China, proclaimed in 1949, which, in turn, regards Taiwan as its revolutionary province. Taiwan is officially recognized as the “Republic of China” by 15 UN member states, with many others having economic and cultural ties to it without official recognition.
source: radio svoboda
