US-China relations are teetering on a precipice after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit toTaiwan.
Pelosi received a rapturous welcome in Taipei and was applauded with strong bipartisan support in Washington, despite the Biden administration's misgivings. But her trip has enraged Beijing and Chinese nationalists and will complicate already strained ties even after her departure.
Already, China is preparing new shows of force in theTaiwanStrait to make clear that its claims are non-negotiable on the island it regards as a renegade province. And, as the U.S. presses ahead with demonstrations of support forTaiwan, arms sales and diplomatic lobbying, the escalating tensions have raised the risks of military confrontation, intentional or not.
Taiwan struck a defiant tone Wednesday as a furious China geared up for military exercises encircling the island in retaliation for Nancy Pelosi's visit, hours after the senior US politician left.
Group of Seven leaders urged Beijing to show restraint, saying there was "no justification" for "aggressive" military drills in the Taiwan Strait.
US House Speaker Pelosi left Taiwan Wednesday morning, having defied a series of increasingly stark threats from Beijing, which views the island as its territory and warned it would consider the visit a major provocation.
China later announced what it said were "necessary and just" military drills in the seas just off Taiwan's coast -- some of the world's busiest waterways.
"In the current struggle surrounding Pelosi's Taiwan visit, the United States are the provocateurs, China is the victim," Beijing's foreign ministry said.
After a trip that drew China's wrath, a defiant Nancy Pelosi concluded her visit to Taiwan on Wednesday with a pledge that the American commitment to democracy on the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.”
Pelosi was the first US House speaker to visit the island in more than 25 years, and China swiftly responded by announcing multiple military exercises nearby.
The speaker's departure for South Korea came just a day before China was scheduled to launch its largest maneuvers aimed at Taiwan in more than a quarter of a century.
Canada is extremely concerned with heightened tensions after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit this week, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday, calling on China to de-escalate the situation.
"We think that legislators do visits around the world and clearly the visit cannot be used as a justification for heightened tensions or a pretext," Joly, speaking alongside her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, told reporters in Montreal.
"So, in that sense we call on China to de-escalate because we think that there may be risks of not only heightened tensions, but also destabilizing the region," Joly said. - Reuters.
China cannot prevent world leaders from traveling to Taiwan, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday after concluding a visit to the self-ruled island.
"Sadly, Taiwan has been prevented from participating in global meetings, most recently the World Health Organization, because of objections by the Chinese Communist Party," Pelosi said in statement.
"While they may prevent Taiwan from sending its leaders to global forums, they cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing Democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration." - Reuters.