Beijing should not use Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan as a pretext for provocative actions, the top US diplomat has said Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted long-range live-fire gunnery training exercise in the Taiwan Strait. © Chinese Defense Ministry
The large-scale drills launched by the Chinese military in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan earlier this week are “a significant escalation” to the tensions in the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
China “should not use the visit as a pretext for war, escalation, for provocative actions,” Blinken told journalists on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on Friday.
Pelosi’s trip to the self-governed island was peaceful and does not mean that Washington has changed its policy towards China, so “there is no possible justification” for the unprecedented wargames now being staged by Beijing around Taiwan, he said, adding that China should “cease these actions.”
Blinken delivered a speech at the summit, with top diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, attending.
During his address, the secretary of state described China’s reaction to Pelosi’s visit as “flagrantly provocative,” a Western official who was in the audience told Reuters. (RT)