US-CHINA TENSIONS
Pelosi and Tsai praise democracy as China drills form 'blockade'
Taiwan says exercises are act of locking down island's airspace and sea space
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei on Wednesday. © Taiwan Presidential Office/Reuters
THOMPSON CHAU, Contributing writer, LAULY LI and CHENG TING-FANG, Nikkei staff writers
August 3, 2022 11:39 JSTUpdated on August 3, 2022 16:35 JST
TAIPEI -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a historic meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on Wednesday, prompting China to announce live-fire drills in several locations around the democratic island -- a move that Taiwan said amounted to a "blockade."
Beijing has responded angrily to the trip -- the highest-level visit by a U.S. official in 25 years. China announced it would ban imports of Taiwanese citrus fruit and two types of fish, and stop exporting natural sand to Taiwan. These moves follow the prohibition of thousands of food imports.
Pelosi and Tsai used the spotlight offered by the visit to praise democracy and play up mutual security interests.
"Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down, we will firmly uphold our nation's sovereignty and continue to hold the line of defense for democracy," Tsai said. "At the same time, we wish to cooperate and work in unity with democracies around the world to jointly safeguard democratic values."
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has drawn the world's attention to security in the Taiwan Strait. Aggression against democratic Taiwan would have a tremendous impact on the security of the entire Indo-Pacific," Tsai said.
Tsai added that Taiwan is committed to strengthening self-defense capability, and developing global trade and supply chains.
Pelosi said she made the visit to "make it unequivocally clear that we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan and we are proud of our enduring friendship."
"We have built a thriving partnership grounded in our shared values of governments and determination focused on our mutual security interests in the region and across the world," she said.
Pelosi then echoed President Joe Biden by saying: "the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy," adding that "America's determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad."
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waves to reporters on her arrival at Taiwan's parliament on Aug. 3. © AFP/Jiji
Pelosi said Taiwan's democracy offers a stark contrast to Hong Kong and mainland China. "No more evidence needed than what happened in Hong Kong, under 'one country two systems."
"It's really clear while China has stood in the way of Taiwan participating and going to certain meetings that they understand they will not stand in the way of people coming to Taiwan."
Pelosi, who didn't answer questions about what tangible benefits she would bring to Taiwan, landed in Taipei late Tuesday to a chorus of threats from China.
Immediately after her arrival, China's Defense Ministry said Beijing would launch a series of "targeted military operations" to counteract Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
China's People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command said it would conduct a series of military operations around Taiwan. It said it would conduct joint air and sea exercises around Taiwan, and conduct long-range, live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan's foreign ministry said the PLA's demand that aircraft and ships from other countries do not enter Taiwan's sea and airspace "has seriously affected international trade and legal order."
Yu Jian-chang, deputy director of the Department of Legal Affairs at the defense ministry said at a news conference: "Such an act is equal to a blockade of Taiwan's airspace and sea space, which seriously violates our sovereignty and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs assured the public that the island's inventories of crude oil, natural gas, and coal are all under safe levels of inventories that could suffice domestic need and will not be affected by the live-fire drills to be conducted by China.
The island's official Central News Agency, citing transport minister Wang Kwo-tsai, said Taiwan was negotiating with Japan and the Philippines to find alternative aviation routes but ships would be able to avoid China's drill zones.
Before her meeting with Tsai, Pelosi paid a visit to the Legislative Yuan and held a meeting with Taiwanese counterparts, led by Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang.
Deputy Speaker Tsai praised Pelosi's legislative career, which he said "has been intertwined" with Taiwan. Pelosi was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 1987, the same year that strongman President Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law in Taiwan.
Pelosi observed that as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation to China 30 years ago she unfurled a statement in Tiananmen Square honoring dissidents and activists killed in the 1989 crackdown. That delegation, she said, was about human rights and unfair trade practices and the "security issue of dangerous technologies being transferred to rogue countries."
According to Taiwanese media, Pelosi will meet later Wednesday with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chairman Mark Liu. She will also meet former Tiananmen Square student leader Wuerkaixi, as well as Hong Kong Causeway Bay bookseller Lan Wing-kee, and Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che -- both of whom had previously been kidnapped -- at the Jingmei Human Rights Park in New Taipei city.
Pelosi will fly to South Korea later Wednesday on the next leg of her Asian tour.
NİKKEI ASİA
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