China summons US ambassador over Pelosi's Taiwan trip; warns America shall 'pay price'

Beijing, Aug 03: China's Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng on Wednesday summoned US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns to protest against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan island on Tuesday, stressing that the nature of her visit is extremely vicious and the consequence is very grave.

Xie said the Chinese side will not sit idly by. The US must pay the price for its own mistake. China will take necessary and resolute countermeasures and "we mean what we say", Global Times reported.

He maintained that the US government should have restrained Pelosi's unscrupulous move and prevented her from going against the historical trend but instead indulged her and colluded with her, which exacerbates the tension in the Taiwan Straits and seriously damages China-US ties.

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 defence 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 kilometres 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."

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, and Nancy Pelosi, disregarded China's strong opposition and solemn representations and visited Taiwan, China.

The Chinese officials and experts warned that all the consequences of this highly dangerous and provocative move will be borne by Washington, and such a visit will also forever change the cross-Straits situation and deliver a destructive impact on the already-difficult China-US relations.