China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan

China says it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the EU criticising Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

The Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li made “solemn representations” over what he called “wanton interference in China’s internal affairs.”

China has dispatched navy ships and warplanes and launched missiles into the Taiwan Strait in response to a visit this week by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which China regards as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.

On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered on Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area. Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot.

On Friday morning, China sent military ships and warplanes across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese Defence Ministry said, crossing what had been an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan for decades.

Five of the missiles fired by China since the military exercises began on Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”

Japan’s Defence Ministry later said they believe the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security.

In Tokyo, where Pelosi is winding up her Asia trip, she said China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan. Speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, Kishida said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”

Deng said China would “prevent the country from splitting with the strongest determination, using all means and at any cost.”

“Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is a blatant political manipulation and a blatant and serious violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Deng said. “In response to the US-Taiwan collusion and provocation, China’s counterattack is only natural.”

China’s Foreign Ministry said the meeting was held Thursday night but gave no information on which countries participated. Earlier Thursday, China cancelled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest the G7 statement that there was no justification for the exercises.

Both ministers were attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.

China had earlier summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and holding other public events. She travelled on to South Korea and then Japan. Both countries host US military bases and could be drawn into a conflict involving Taiwan.

The Chinese exercises involve troops from the navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force and logistic support force, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

They are believed to be the largest held near Taiwan in geographical terms, with Beijing announcing six exercise zones surrounding the island.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the drills on Thursday saying, “I hope very much that Beijing will not manufacture a crisis or seek a pretext to increase its aggressive military activity. We countries around the world believe that escalation serves no one and could have unintended consequences that serve no one’s interests.”

US law requires the government to treat threats to Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “grave concern.”

The drills are due to run from Thursday to Sunday and include missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters held in 1995 and 1996.

Taiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defence drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been cancelled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid the Chinese drills.

In the northern port of Keelung, Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning swim Thursday, saying he wasn’t worried.

“Everyone should want money, not bullets,” Lu said.