The US on Friday condemned China for cutting off bilateral cooperation in a number of key areas and said Beijing could ease tensions over Taiwan by ending its “provocative” live-fire military drills.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that China’s decision to halt engagement on climate change and other issues was “fundamentally irresponsible.”
“They think they’re punishing us by shutting down this channel,” Kirby told reporters.
Photo: Reuters
“They’re actually punishing the whole world because the climate crisis doesn’t recognize geographic boundaries and borders,” he said. “It’s truly a global and existential crisis.”
“The world’s largest emitter now is refusing to engage on critical steps necessary to combat the climate crisis, which actually impacts our partners from rising sea levels in the Pacific Islands and fires across Europe,” Kirby added.
“We should not hold hostage cooperation on matters of global concern because of differences between our two countries,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference during a visit to Manila.
China earlier said it was ending cooperation with the US on a litany of key issues including climate change, efforts to counter drug trafficking and military talks, as relations between the two countries nosedived over Taiwan.
Beijing has reacted furiously to a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Since Thursday, China has conducted a series of huge military drills around Taiwan proper, which have been roundly condemned by the US and other countries.
Kirby said China can “go a long way to taking the tensions down by simply stopping these provocative military exercises and ending the rhetoric.”
Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan told local media following an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting on Friday that he has spoken to Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) about the issue.
Balakrishnan told Wang that the “main danger is you have got a lot of ships and planes and missiles massed around there. There is a danger, even though I know you do not want to go to war, but there is a danger of accidents and miscalculations,” a transcript released yesterday by the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed.
“For what it is worth, we repeat the appeal that for the rest of us in Southeast Asia, we actually want temperatures to come down. It is actually very important for Southeast Asia, for China and the United States to get along,” he said.
“Once you split [the US-China relations] apart, it means higher prices, it means less efficient supply chains. It means a more divided world, a more disrupted and dangerous world. Those are the stakes,” he said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique