WASHINGTON: Chinese war games around Taiwan \u201cunnecessarily\u201d spiked tensions in the region, the US State Department said Thursday, calling on Beijing to \u201ccease its military pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChina\u2019s military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily. We urge Beijing to exercise restraint, cease its military pressure against Taiwan, and instead engage in meaningful dialogue,\u201d State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Beijing launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coast guard vessels on Monday and Tuesday to encircle Taiwan, saying the drills simulated a blockade of the self-ruled island\u2019s main ports.<\/p>\n
Taipei condemned the exercises as \u201chighly provocative.\u201d<\/p>\n
China claims that democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to annex it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States supports peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, including by force or coercion,\u201d Pigott said.<\/p>\n
China again defended the drills as \u201clegitimate\u201d on Friday, and warned countries to \u201cstop stirring up trouble on the Taiwan Strait issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge relevant countries and institutions to strictly abide by the one-China principle,\u201d a Chinese defense ministry spokesman said in a statement responding to calls for restraint, including from the United States.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said Monday he was not concerned about China\u2019s live-fire drills, appearing to brush aside the possibility of counterpart Xi Jinping ordering an invasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a great relationship with President Xi. And he hasn\u2019t told me anything about it,\u201d Trump told reporters when asked about the exercises.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe he\u2019s going to be doing it,\u201d Trump said in apparent reference to an invasion.<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s show of force came after the Trump administration approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The United States has been committed for decades to ensuring Taiwan\u2019s self-defense, while staying ambiguous on whether the US military would intervene in an invasion.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s latest exercises were the sixth major round of maneuvers since 2022 when a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Chinese war games around Taiwan \u201cunnecessarily\u201d spiked tensions in the region, the US State Department said Thursday, calling on Beijing to \u201ccease its military pressure.\u201d \u201cChina\u2019s military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily. We urge Beijing to exercise restraint, cease its military pressure against Taiwan, and instead …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91754,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91741\/revisions\/91754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}