China cuts military links with the US and punishes Pelosi for her visit to Taiwan.

Beijing announced Friday that it will postpone defense meetings, conversations with regional military leaders, and discussions on climate change and marine safety. It also declared that it will stop working with the United States on initiatives to combat drugs, deport illegal immigrants, and combat transnational crime. In reaction to what the Chinese Foreign Ministry called Pelosi’s flagrant provocations, China earlier announced sanctions against the speaker and her immediate family.

As Washington and its allies encouraged de-escalation, China responded with the unnamed sanctions as its most recent punishment for the brief visit to the autonomous island it claims as its own territory.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated that the U.S. summoned the Chinese ambassador on Thursday to express formal disapproval of Beijing’s activities against Taiwan and to reaffirm that Washington does not wish to ignite a crisis in the area. News of the criticism was first released by The Washington Post.

Pelosi declared that China will not be permitted to succeed in its efforts to isolate Taiwan while on her final leg of her Asia tour in Japan.

She remarked on Friday, hours before the penalties against her, that they might try to restrict Taiwan from traveling or taking part in other locations, but they won’t isolate Taiwan by banning us from going there.

Up until this point, China’s response has mostly focused on the island with a population of nearly 23 million people that is located just across the Taiwan Strait.

Friday morning saw the start of Beijing’s second day of military exercises encircling the island, with a number of military ships and aircraft crossing the median line in the strait, which has served as an unofficial buffer zone for decades.

It launched ballistic missiles the day before, boasting that at least one of them flew directly over the island and that five of them landed in the waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

By 5 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET) on Friday, the defense ministry reported that 13 warships and 68 military aircraft from China had conducted frequent exercises in the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwanese military will take decisive action to safeguard national security and ensure that democracy and freedom are not threatened, the Ministry of National Defense was quoted as saying. The ministry denounced the Chinese military’s deliberate crossing of the middle line of the Strait and infringement on the sea and airspace around Taiwan.

That missiles flew over Taiwan has not been confirmed or denied by the ministry. If accurate, it would be the first time Chinese missiles had flown over the island under independent Chinese administration.

According to the news agency, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry denounced the exercises as “extremely provocative,” pledging to avoid worsening the situation while pledging to “take resolute actions to preserve national security and ensure that democracy and freedom are not jeopardized.”

The ongoing drills in China were denounced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a “major escalation” on Friday.

At a press conference held at a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia, the speaker claimed that “China has chosen to overreact and use Speaker Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to boost aggressive military activity in and around the Taiwan strait.

“This excessive, disproportionate, and escalatory military response has no basis,” the statement reads.
The drills, which got under way on Thursday, should continue through Sunday.

Despite never having held power, the Chinese Communist Party regards Taiwan as its own country. While Chinese President Xi Jinping views Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland as a historic necessity, recent polls indicate that the majority of Taiwanese prefer to keep things as they are and have no desire to join China.

China repeatedly cautioned the United States not to go, claiming that doing so would significantly violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to the White House, the speaker’s travel was in line with American policy toward Taiwan and shouldn’t be used to start a conflict.

Concerns over China’s assertiveness have grown among Taiwan’s neighbors and regional U.S. allies.

Tokyo requested that China immediately halt its drills on Friday. According to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, China’s actions this time have a significant impact on the peace and stability of our area and the global community.

Beijing argued that the military exercises were “in conformity with international law and international practice.”

There is no such thing as “Japan’s exclusive economic zone,” Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a news briefing. “As for the ‘exclusive economic zone’ you mentioned, you should know, and the Japanese side should also know that China and Japan have not yet demarcated the relevant waters,” she added.