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Rabat – Vice President of the EU Commission Josep Borrell on Thursday condemned China’s decision to fire missiles toward the Taiwan Strait as part of military exercises following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
As part of announced military drills, China fired missiles close to Taiwan waters on August 4, a day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.
“There is no justification to use a visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait. It is normal and routine for legislators from our countries to travel internationally,” Borrell argued.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that Chinese missiles came towards its waters, warning that its armed forces have been monitoring the situation with various means.
“Our defense systems have been activated. We condemn such irrational action that has jeopardized regional peace,” the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said in a tweet today.
The missiles were part of a significant live-fire military drill that China launched around Taiwan after Pelosi’s visit.
The US official is the first high-level US official that paid an official trip to Taiwan in 25 years, reports said. The US visit appears to be heightening tensions with China at a time when the US once again has its Western allies in NATO firmly within its fold due to the Ukraine crisis and its corresponding hysteria in Europe.
During the visit, the House Speaker held a series of meetings with high-level officials including Taiwanese President Tsai-Ing-wen on Wednesday.
During the meeting, Pelosi renewed US support and solidarity with the island and vowed to defend the country’s democracy, clearly contradicting the official “one china” policy the US has followed for decades, while covertly supporting Taiwan.
On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement in response to Pelosi’s visit, describing it as a “serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques.”
The Chinese government expressed that such a visit has a “severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations,” and is against China’s integrity and sovereignty.
“It gravely undermines peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces for “Taiwan Independence,” the Chinese ministry said, opposing and condemning the visit.
Deemed controversial by the media, the US official’s visit followed a series of threats from Washington’s rival, Beijing, which has been claiming that Taiwan is part of its territory under its “One China Principles.” Both the Taiwanese and Chinese governments have claimed ownership over all of China in a decades-old dispute following China’s post-WWII revolution that saw China’s deposed nationalist government take refuge on the island,
A statement from China’s Military’s Eastern Theater Command said the live-fire training mission “has successfully competed and the relevant air and sea area control are now lifted.”
The statement added that the missiles had been fired into the sea off the “eastern part of Taiwan.” It said “all the missiles hit their target accurately.”
