China expresses displeasure over the US senators' visit to Taiwan

Beijing/Washington/Taipei – The visit of three senior US senators to Taiwan has made China extremely restless. While expressing intense resentment over this visit of the US senators, China has also registered an open complaint with the United States. Reactions have come even from the Chinese media and social media, and an angry question is being raised that if China is not going to act even after crossing the red line, how will the other countries accept Taiwan as a part of China?

On Sunday, three US senators reached Taiwan in a C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US air force. These senators include Tammy Duckworth and Christopher Coons of the Democrat party and Dan Sullivan of the Republican party. All the three senators met the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen along with other senior leaders. At this time, an announcement to supply 1.35 million Coronavirus vaccine doses to Taiwan also was made. Furthermore, the US senators assured that the United States would stand behind Taiwan for the Coronavirus pandemic crisis and any other cooperation required by Taiwan.

This visit of the US senators is considered to be a part of the continuation of the policies regarding Taiwan of former President Donald Trump. During the Trump tenure, three senior US officials had visited Taiwan. While announcing the policy regarding Taiwan, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had declared that the ban on the visit of the US officials to Taiwan had been lifted. This is considered a major stage in the decisions taken to improve the cooperation between the United States and Taiwan. There is tremendous tension between the United States and China, and Taiwan is the biggest issue causing it. In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping had warned that all the possible options would be exercised to take over Taiwan. After that, the United States made its Taiwan-related policy more aggressive and also increased the military movements in the Taiwanese marine region. Reinforcing it with official diplomatic visits and other decisions, the United States is trying to counter China on the Taiwan issue.

China repeatedly expresses resentment over the US efforts. Even after the Sunday visit, Wang Wenbin, spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, expressed resentment over the US visit. Wenbin warned that the United States should sever all its ties with Taiwan. At the same time, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said that an official complaint on the diplomatic level was also made with the United States.

An angry question has been raised on the Chinese social media, ‘When China has announced that Taiwan is a Red Line for China, how does the United States repeatedly cross it?’ Chinese netizens also had an aggressive tone saying that sending a US military aircraft for the visit of the US Senators is an open challenge for China. Some of the netizens also accused the United States of adopting the salami-slicing policy instead of openly confronting China.