Beijing starts more live drills around Taiwan as Tsai Ing-wen meets another US delegation
- Taiwanese president holds closed-door meeting with first high-level US congressional delegation to visit island since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip
- US group says it seeks to reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and expand economic cooperation, ‘including investments in semiconductors’
“This is a resolute counterstrike and solemn deterrence to the consecutive provocations by the US and Taiwan that undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry, said.
He added that the visit led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey sent the wrong signals to pro-independence forces in Taiwan.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing had repeatedly warned against the trip, which breached the one-China principle and the three joint communiques signed by Washington.
Wang also said the visit was a “violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China” and cross-strait reunification was a historic trend that could not be changed.
He urged Washington to stop interfering in the internal affairs of the mainland and warned that any attempt to challenge the one-China principle and split the island from the mainland would be crushed by Beijing.
Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang also accused the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party of repeatedly using “external force” to counter Beijing and of seeking independence for the island through support from the US.
