Taiwan visit: China slaps sanctions against Pelosi

Beijing: China on Friday announced sanctions on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her immediate family in retaliation to her high-profile visit to Taiwan this week and cancelled talks with Washington on defence, climate change and a range of other issues. Pelosi, 82, the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, visited the island on Tuesday, which Beijing claims as part of it and vows to integrate with the Chinese mainland.

 The Chinese Foreign Ministry, which stridently criticised her visit and lodged stern protests against the US by summoning its Ambassador to China Chris Burns and announced four-day high-intensity military drills in Taiwan Strait, issued a statement on Friday imposing sanctions against Pelosi and her family.

“In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region,” the statement said. “This constitutes gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” it said.

 “In response to Pelosi’s egregious provocation, China decides to adopt sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members in accordance with relevant laws of the People’s Republic of China,” it said. The sanctions against Pelosi were regarded as symbolic and it bans her and her family members from travelling to China.