WH summons Chinese Ambassador to condemn military drills around Taiwan
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China during long-range live-fire drills by the army of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. China conducted “precision missile strikes” Thursday in waters off Taiwan’s coasts as part of military exercises that have raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades following a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Lai Qiaoquan/Xinhua via AP)
Biden administration officials called Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang to the White House in order to condemn the nation’s recent military drills near Taiwan. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby talked to the Washington Post on Friday to explain the White House summoned the ambassador to protest China’s “provocative actions.”
This conversation comes as the Chinese military recently carried out drills in the waters surrounding Taiwan following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to the island. The US plans to conduct its own military drills in the next few weeks in response.
BREAKING: Chinese military announces "military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills" in multiple areas around Taiwan between Thursday and Saturday. pic.twitter.com/tGYTc4ugQo
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“The United States is prepared for what Beijing chooses to do. We will not seek, nor do we want a crisis,” stated Kirby. “At the same time, we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and the skies of the Western Pacific, consistent with international law, as we have for decades, supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Kirby also noted that ships, including the USS Reagan, are remaining in the region to monitor the situation.