Penny Wong has condemned China over ‘grave’ act

Penny Wong has stood with the US and Japan to issue a stern warning to China over their intense military drills in Taiwan.

US Seceretery of State Antony Blinken at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh this week. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP)

Australia, the US and Japan have issued a stern condemnation of China, accusing the country of “gravely” affecting international stability over their intense military drills in the Taiwan Straits.

On Friday Foreign Minister Penny Wong said China’s actions, which have included launching ballistic missiles Japan claims to have landed in its exclusive economic zone, were “disproportionate and destabilising.”

Wong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa issued the joint-statement from the sidelines of the 55th ASEAN summit currently underway in Phnom Penh.

On Thursday China initiated large-scale military drills in the Taiwan Straits and launched ballistic missiles that reportedly landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on Wednesday.

Australia, the US and Japan have sternly condemned China for escalating tensions in the Taiwan Straits. Picture: Mohd RASFAN / AFP

“The Secretary and the Foreign Ministers expressed their concern about the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) recent actions that gravely affect international peace and stability, including the use of large-scale military exercises,” Wong, Blinken and Yoshimasa said in a joint-statement.

The trio specifically condemned China’s deployment of ballistic missiles, an act they said raised tensions and destabilised the region.

China has reacted furiously to Ms Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, a small democracy whose independence the communist nation refuses to recognise.

In addition to dramatically increasing their military live-fire drills in the Taiwan Straits China has “personally sanctioned” Ms Pelosi and her immediate family, the PRC said in a statement.

The Taiwan Straits have become a theatre of international tension, after China began live-fire military drills in the water around Taiwan. Photograph: Alberto Buzzola/LightRocket via Getty Images

China does not recognise Taiwan’s independence and has vowed to “reunify” the island nation with Chinese mainland, if necessary by force.

The escalation of China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait led ASEAN to make the rare call on Thursday for “maximum restraint” to be shown.

The Secretary and the Ministers have repeatedly stressed there was “no change” in the policy’s of each country on Taiwan.

In the joint statement Wong, Blinken and Yoshimasa also committed to strengthening the relationship between the three countries.

They said the partnership rested on the “unshakeable foundation” of the nations’ shared interests and values, including freedom, the rule of law, and freedom of navigation and overflight.