Beijing ‘punishes’ Taiwan for US visit

China has sanctioned Taiwanese officials and launched further military drills after a bipartisan US Congressional delegation visited the country.

The US delegation, with Taiwanese diplomat Douglas Yu-tien Hsu, centre, in Taipei. Picture: AFP

China has sanctioned Taiwanese officials and launched further military drills after a bipartisan US congressional delegation visited the liberal democracy less than a fortnight after house Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged Beijing with a historic show of support.

US senator Ed Markey – a Democrat and chairman of the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific – led the delegation, which on Monday met Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior ­officials in Taipei.

“At this moment of uncertainty, we must do everything we can to maintain peace and stability for Taiwan,” Senator Markey said in a meeting with Ms Tsai at the Presidential Office.

“We have a moral obligation to do everything we can to prevent an unnecessary conflict, and Taiwan has demonstrated incredible restraint and discretion during challenging times.”

The visit came only 12 days after Beijing launched an unprecedented campaign of military intimidation, following Ms Pelosi’s historic and high-profile visit.

While Beijing did not follow through on party state media threats to shoot down the plane of America’s third highest ranking politician, China’s People’s Liberation did encircle Taiwan and blasted 11 ballistic missiles over and around Taipei.

Ms Tsai said the visit by the US delegation at this “critical time” sent an important message to ­Taiwan’s 23 million people.

She told the US delegation that her country, which Beijing claims as its territory, was “committed to maintaining the stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait”.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded with sanctions on seven Taiwanese officials, who it said were guilty of being “independence diehards”.

The seven include the head of Taiwan’s national security council, Wellington Koo, Taiwan’s most senior envoy in the US, Hsiao Bi-khim, and Lin Fe-fan, the deputy secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Progressive party.

Beijing said the seven were barred from travelling to China, Hong Kong and Macao, and from doing business in China.

The People’s Liberation Army also sent 30 warplanes and five gunships near the ­island on Monday to conduct military activities, as the US delegation met Ms Tsai, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and members of Taiwan’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said 15 of those warplanes had crossed the median line, an unofficial maritime line that crosses the middle of the Taiwan Strait.

Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry in Beijing, said the PLA would continue to “train and prepare for war”.

“We warn the US and the DPP authorities: using Taiwan to contain China is doomed to failure,” Mr Wu said.

The US politicians – Senator Markey and Democrat house members John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, Don Beyer and Republican Aumua Amata Coleman – arrived on Sunday night and departed on Monday.

Their trip was more guarded than previous visits with an edited video of their meeting with the Taiwanese President released only after they had departed.

Lo Chih-cheng, one of the Taiwanese legislative members who they met, said their visit was significant as it came so soon after Beijing’s recent bellicosity.

“The purpose of China’s military exercises is to intimidate members of the US government so they do not visit Taiwan,” said Mr Lo, a member of Taiwan’s governing DPP.

Mr Lo, previously a spokesman on Ms Tsai’s presidential campaign, said the DPP members of the Foreign Affairs and National Defence Committee used the closed-door meeting to focus on a shift away from Washington’s current policy of strategic ambiguity in the case of an invasion by China.

“Our hope is that the US will move to a position of strategic clarity,” he said.

China has never ruled out using military force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan’s government says the Communist Party has never ruled the island and has no right to claim it.