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Taiwan fires flares to ward off drones near Kinmen Islands
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Thursday that unidentified aircraft, likely drones, had flown over the area of its Kinmen Islands, which lie off China’s southeast coast, on Wednesday night, and who had fired flares to drive them away.
A senior military official in Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen Islands added that the situation is “normal” on the islands, including the military alert level, according to a recent Reuters report.
Updated at 01.44 BST
G7 calls on China to resolve Taiwan dispute
The world’s most powerful democracies have criticized China for “increasing tensions and destabilizing the region” over its response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Top G7 diplomats said on Wednesday they were “concerned by recent and announced threatening actions by the People’s Republic of China, particularly live-fire exercises and economic coercion, which risk unnecessary escalation.”
The statement by the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the EU said:
There is no justification for using a visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait. It is normal and usual for the legislators of our countries to travel internationally.
The PRC’s escalating response risks escalating tensions and destabilizing the region.
He urged China not to “unilaterally change the status quo by force in the region and resolve cross-strait differences through peaceful means.”
They also made it clear that “there was no change in the G7 members’ respective one-China policies, if any, and basic positions on Taiwan.”
[We] encourage all parties to remain calm, to act with restraint, to act with transparency and to keep lines of communication open to avoid misunderstandings.”
The South Korean president will not meet with Pelosi in Seoul, who is on vacation
Following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taiwan, the top US official arrived in Seoul on Wednesday night as part of her Asian tour.
The congresswoman, who is second in line to the US presidency, will meet on Thursday with the speaker of the National Assembly of South Korea, Kim Jin-pyo, and the leaders of the conservative ruling People’s Power Party , as well as with the opposition Democratic Party of Korea.
However, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has no plans to meet with Pelosi as he is currently on summer vacation, a presidential office official told SCMP.
The official denied earlier press reports that Yoon, who is taking a break at her home in Seoul, might come out to meet Pelosi.
First of all, there was no plan (for Yoon’s meeting with Pelosi) since the president’s vacation schedule coincides with his visit here.”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will not meet with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she is currently on summer vacation. Photo: Office of the President/EPA brochure
The presidential office “welcomes” Pelosi’s visit to South Korea and hopes her talks with National Assembly Speaker Kim will be productive, the official said.
Asked about Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan, she said: “Our government’s position is that we will maintain close communication with interested nations on all issues under the banner of the need for peace and stability in the region through dialogue and cooperation”.
Speculation mounted on social media.
“Because of the holidays? No way. Yoon is not meeting with Pelosi as she is playing for China,” read one post. If this had happened to Yoon’s predecessor, former liberal President Moon Jae-in, conservatives and the communication would have “raised hell with it” and accused Moon of moving to Beijing, the publication added.
Updated at 01.16 BST
China claims Taiwan territory as a ‘historic inevitability’, says former UK ambassador
China’s former ambassador to the UK issued a scathing statement overnight, warning the US to stop obstructing China’s “great cause of reunification” and describing the process as a “historic inevitability”.
Liu Xiaoming said:
The United States should not fantasize about obstructing the great cause of China’s reunification. Taiwan is part of China.
Realizing complete national reunification is the general trend and a historical inevitability. We will never leave room for the division of “Taiwan independence” and the interference of external forces.
No matter how the US supports and endorses “Taiwan independence”, it will ultimately be a travesty and will only leave uglier records of US gross interference in other countries’ internal affairs in history.
Taiwan’s problem was born out of the country’s weakness and chaos, and will surely end the nation’s rejuvenation in the future.”
The United States should not fantasize about obstructing the great cause of China’s reunification. Taiwan is part of China. Realizing complete national reunification is the general trend and a historical inevitability. We will never leave room for the separation of “Taiwan independence” and the interference of external forces. No matter how the US supports and endorses “Taiwan independence”, it will ultimately be a travesty and will only leave uglier records of US gross interference in other countries’ internal affairs in history.
— 刘晓明Liu Xiaoming (@AmbLiuXiaoMing) August 3, 2022
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of China-Taiwan tensions.
My name is Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest news.
It’s getting close to 7am in Beijing. Here’s everything you might have missed:
- China will begin an unprecedented series of live-fire drills that would effectively blockade the island of Taiwan, just hours after the departure of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose controversial visit this week has sparked fears of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
- Taiwan has called the drills a violation of international law. The drills will last until Sunday afternoon and will include missile tests and other “military operations” up to nine miles off Taiwan’s coast.
- Before the exercise, Taiwan said 27 Chinese warplanes had entered its air defense zone.
- Pelosi arrived in Taipei on Tuesday night under intense global scrutiny, and was greeted by Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and US Representative to Taiwan Sandra Oudkirk.
- Pelosi addressed Taiwan’s parliament on Wednesday before holding public and private meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen. “Our delegation came to Taiwan to make it abundantly clear that we will not abandon Taiwan, and we are proud of our enduring friendship,” he said, adding that US solidarity with Taiwan was “crucial” in confronting an increasingly authoritarian China.
- In a later statement, he said China could not prevent world leaders from traveling to Taiwan “to respect its flourishing democracy.”
- Pelosi’s trip drew condemnation from Beijing and sparked fears of a new Taiwan Strait crisis.
- China promised “consequences” and announced military exercises in waters around the island on Thursday to show its dissatisfaction.
- Taiwan’s defense ministry accused Beijing of planning to violate the international convention on the law of the sea, by violating Taiwan’s sovereign territory.
- Taiwanese authorities have said the proximity to some major ports combined with orders for all aircraft and sea vessels to stay away from the area amounts to a blockade.
- While China’s military often conducts live-fire drills in the strait and surrounding seas, those planned for this week circle the main island of Taiwan and target areas within its territorial sea.
China will conduct a series of live-fire military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan. China will conduct a series of live-fire military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan
Updated at 00.21 BST