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Taiwan President Says, โ€œWonโ€™t Back Downโ€ As China Gears Military Drills

taiwan opposes china , hosting pelosi
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said her country wonโ€™t back down in the face of the Chinese military threat.

Mumbai: On Wednesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen struck a defiant tone as she received US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with furious China preparing for major military exercises throughout the island in retaliation for the visit.

Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday despite a series of increasingly explicit warnings and threats from Beijing, which considers the island its territory and said it would view his visit as a major provocation.

China reacted quickly, warning the American ambassador in Beijing of the โ€œextremely serious consequencesโ€ and announcing military exercises around Taiwan.
โ€œIn the face of deliberately increased military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will continue to maintain the defense line for democracy, โ€ Taiwanโ€™s president said at the event with Pelosi in Taipei.

She also thanked Pelosi for taking concrete steps to support Taiwan at this critical time.
China tries to keep Taiwan isolated from the world stage and opposes countries that have official trade with Taipei.
Second in line to the presidency, Pelosi is the top US official elected to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

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โ€œToday, our delegation came to Taiwan to make it clear that we will not give up our commitment to Taiwan and that we are proud of our lasting friendship,โ€ said the speaker at the event with Tsai. In a previous event, Pelosi said her delegation had come โ€œto Taiwan in friendshipโ€ and โ€œto the region in peaceโ€.

At an earlier event, Pelosi said her delegation came โ€œto Taiwan in friendshipโ€ and โ€œto the region in peace.โ€ President Joe Bidenโ€™s administration said ahead of the visit that US policy toward Taiwan remained unchanged.

This means supporting its government while granting Beijing diplomatic recognition in Taipei and opposing a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or a violent takeover by China.

Pelosiโ€™s visit โ€œis of an extremely egregious nature and the consequences are extremely serious,โ€ Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told Burns, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
โ€œChina will not sit idly by.โ€ Chinaโ€™s military said it was on โ€œhigh alertโ€ and would โ€œlaunch a series of targeted military actionsโ€ in response to the visit.
The drills include โ€œlong-range live ammunitionโ€ in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China and straddles major shipping lanes.

Tokyo, a key U.S. ally in the region, said Wednesday it had expressed concern to China over the drills, saying the area used for the drills overlapped with Japanโ€™s exclusive economic zone.

Outside the Taiwanese parliament, 31-year-old computer programmer Frank Chen dismissed the Chinese warnings against Pelosiโ€™s visit.

Iโ€™m not too worried about Chinaโ€™s intimidation, I think China will take more threatening actions and ban more Taiwanese products, but we shouldnโ€™t be too worried.โ€ he told AFP

There was a small group of pro-China demonstrators outside parliament as well.

โ€œThe United States uses Taiwan as a pawn in its confrontation with China, to try to drag China down so (it) can dominate the world,โ€ Lee Kai-dee, a 71-year-old retired researcher, told AFP.

โ€œIf the United States continues to act this way, Taiwan will end up like Ukraine.โ€

China has vowed to annex self-ruled, democratic Taiwan one day, by force if necessary. Beijing tries to keep the island isolated on the world stage and opposes countries having official exchanges with Taipei. In a call with Biden last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned Washington against โ€œplaying with fireโ€ on Taiwan.

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