In the aftermath of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, tensions have risen between China and Japan. Reportedly, after Japan condemned China’s military drills around Taiwan as a ‘threat to regional peace and security’, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released a lengthy statement questioning Tokyo’s motives.
Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press conference, “Japan has been acting so high-profile on the Taiwan question. Has it forgotten the commitment it made when signing the Sino-Japanese Joint Statement? Is it trying to subvert the political foundation of China-Japan relations?”
The ministry spokesperson further added, “Does it have the ambition to touch Taiwan again? Is Japan going to take this opportunity to expand its arms, abandon its pacifist constitution and abandon the path of peaceful development?”
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As reported extensively by WION, after Japan released a joint statement alongside G7 nations on Taiwan and Pelosi visited Japan, a miffed China fired five ballistic missiles in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
However, at the conference, China’s foreign ministry refused to accept that such an incident took place even place. Furthermore, Wang stated that there is no such thing as ‘Japan’s EEZ’ in the area.
The G7 foreign ministers in their joint statement titled “Preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan strait” had called on China to resolve the tensions peacefully.
“We are concerned by recent and announced threatening actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), particularly live-fire exercises and economic coercion, which risk unnecessary escalation. There is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait,” read the statement, of which Japan was a signatory.
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Ever since Nancy Pelosi announced her decision to visit Taiwan, China had been threatening of dire consequences. While it didn’t do much when Pelosi was in Taipei, it sure has engaged its afterburners since then.
A day after completing its biggest military exercise around the island nation, China announced that more such military drills were in the pipeline, including anti-submarine and sea assault operations.
(With inputs from agencies)
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