“Following China’s actions overnight, we summoned the PRC Ambassador Qin Gang to the White House to demarche about the PRC’s provocative actions. We have condemned the PRC’s military actions, which are irresponsible and contrary to our longstanding goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, in a statement to CNN.
The decision to subpoena Qin came after days of warnings to China not to escalate tensions in the region after the spokesman visited the self-governing island that the Chinese Communist Party considers its territory although it has never controlled it. It represents a departure from the White House’s stance on the trip before it took place, when officials privately tried to warn Pelosi about the possible consequences of the visit and how it could damage US-China relations. The meeting was first reported by the Washington Post.
In the days since Pelosi left Taiwan, China has taken several belligerent moves, both diplomatically and militarily.
On the diplomatic front, Beijing sanctioned Pelosi and her immediate family and said Friday it would suspend cooperation with Washington on several issues, including addressing the climate crisis.
The pause in US-China climate talks is symbolic for the two nations’ bilateral ties, as the climate crisis has been one of the few areas on which the US and China have continued to work together in recent years, even amid heightened geopolitical tensions .
The US and China announced a bilateral deal to work together on the climate crisis in Glasgow last year, widely seen as a progressive move that would allow China to work on key issues – like cutting methane emissions – without joining global agreements had shown resistance to having to. The climate representatives of the nations were in regular contact to build on this agreement.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Chinese warships and planes had been conducting drills in waters around the island and Chinese forces had crossed the center line – the halfway point between the island and mainland China – in what the ministry called a “highly provocative act”.
Two Chinese drones also flew near Japan on Thursday, prompting the country’s Air Self-Defense Forces to launch fighter jets in response, according to a statement by the Tokyo Defense Ministry.
Kirby said the White House had told Qin that the US does not want a crisis in the region, reiterating that there had been no change to the US “one China” policy and that Washington recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate government recognize China.
“We have also made clear that the United States is prepared for whatever Beijing decides to do. We will not seek or want a crisis. At the same time, we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and skies of the western Pacific, consistent with international law, as we have been doing for decades — supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kirby said in the statement .
According to a source familiar with the matter, NSC Indo-Pacific Affairs Coordinator Kurt Campbell met with Qin.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Friday that the US had repeatedly told China “we are not seeking and will not provoke a crisis.” He called China’s recent actions “provocative” and “a significant escalation”.
The spokesman’s visit was “peaceful” and “there is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalating military response.”
Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the visit — the first time a speaker of the US House of Representatives has visited Taiwan in 25 years — was intended to “make absolutely clear” that the United States would “not give up” on Taipei.
It came at a low point in US-China relations and despite warnings from the Biden administration against a visit to the Democratic-ruled island.
The US maintains close unofficial ties with Taiwan and is legally obliged to supply Taiwan with defense weapons. But it remains deliberately vague as to whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, a policy known as “strategic ambiguity.”
The US has postponed a long-planned missile test over China’s furious response to Pelosi’s trip. A US official told CNN that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the Department of Defense to postpone test flight of an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM after China launched military exercises.
A senior official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Friday that Qin “totally rejected” the White House’s so-called condemnation of the cross-strait military actions when he was subpoenaed.
“The only way out of this crisis is for the US side to take immediate action to correct its mistakes and eliminate the serious impact of Pelosi’s visit,” Minister Jing Quan said during a virtual briefing.
Jing reiterated that China viewed Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as a “grave violation of the one-China policy.” He said they view the lawmaker’s trip as an official visit by the US government, noting that Pelosi flew on a US government plane. The use of a government aircraft is standard for congressional delegations, particularly the speaker of the House of Representatives, who is at the top of the line of presidential succession.
He argued Pelosi “knows where China’s red lines are” but said she “still chose to consciously provoke and challenge China’s position.”
This story has been updated with additional information.