Iran Press/ Asia: China’s Foreign Ministry, early on Wednesday local time (Tuesday night GMT), lodged a protest with US Ambassador Nicholas Burns over the unannounced visit by Pelosi to Taiwan, which Beijing calls its “breakaway province.”
“The nature of Pelosi’s visit is extremely vicious, and the consequence is very grave,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told Burns.
Minutes after US House Speaker Pelosi's aircraft landed in Taipei, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced that it would hold six live-fire military drills in waters around Taiwan, scheduled to take place from Thursday to Sunday.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed that on Tuesday late evening, 21 Chinese military aircraft flew into the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
According to Chinese media reports, China announced to carry out the drills in waters north, northeast, northwest, east, south, and southwest of the nation in the Taiwan Strait, the Bashi Channel, the East China Sea, and the Pacific. It further said that one of the locations of the planned drills is less than 20 kilometers from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.
Angered by Pelosi's visit despite Beijing's strong opposition, China said, "This is a very dangerous act of playing with fire, and those who play with fire will set themselves on fire."
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Pelosi lands in Taiwan in 'provocative' trip
China reiterated that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and the government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing the whole of China; Nancy Pelosi disregarded China's firm opposition and solemnly representations and visited Taiwan, China.
The Chinese officials and experts warned Washington would bear all the consequences of this dangerous and provocative move. Such a visit would also forever change the cross-Straits situation and negatively impact the already-difficult China-US relations.
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China calls Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan dangerous, provocative
Iran criticizes visit of US official to Taiwan
