Chinese Jets Breach Taiwanese Air Space After Conclusion Of Nancy Pelosi Visit
Aug. 3 2022, Published 3:49 p.m. ET
It didn’t take long for China to show its military might after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left her Taiwan visit, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Shortly after Pelosi departed the island of Taiwan, China sounded a death knell of its own by breaching the country's air space with 27 jet fighters.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Defense, the fleet consisted of six J-11 fighter jets, five J-16 fighter jets and 16 SU-30 fighter jets.
In response, Taiwan deployed its own fighter jets and deployed air defense missile systems. This after awarding Pelosi a state honor for supporting the country.
China's actions are reverberating across the world. The foreign ministers of G7 countries France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Canada and the U.S. issued a joint statement calling into question China's recent actions.
“We are concerned by recent and announced threatening actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), particularly live-fire exercises and economic coercion, which risk unnecessary escalation,” the statement said. “There is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait.”
Meanwhile, U.K. Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss commented further during a campaign stop August 3. “I do not support China’s inflammatory language on this issue,” she said, according to various reports. “It’s perfectly reasonable what is taking place and I urge China to de-escalate.”
Other actions by China in the shadow of Pelosi's visit included summoning U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns to Beijing and halting some food trade with Taiwan.
There are also plans by the People's Liberation Army to hold live ammunition drills in the Taiwan Straight, as close as 12 miles to the island's shores.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has accused the U.S. of “violating China's sovereignty under the guise of so-called democracy.” In response, Pelosi said during her brief visit that “China cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration".