'US cannot allow China's 'new normal' to pressure Taiwan with military drills'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the US just cannot allow China to establish a new normal to put pressure on Taiwan through the kind of military drills and warplane incursions that Beijing launched after she visited the selfgoverning islandChina on Wednesday announced that it has successfully completed its weeklong and unprecedented military drills that have essentially encircled TaiwanInitially the Peoples Liberation Army announced the war games in the busy Taiwan Strait from August 4 to 7 the day after Pelosi who is the highestranking US leader to have visited Taiwan in 25 years left Taipei after highlevel meetings It later kept extending them keeping the breakaway island on tenterhooksWhat we saw with China is that they were trying to establish sort of a new normal And we just cant let that happen Pelosi told a news conference on Wednesday referring to the provocative drillsThe Chinese military exercises involved hundreds of warplanes dozens of naval ships including an aircraft carrier group with a nuclear submarine in tow amid assertions by the official media here that such war games in the busy Taiwan Strait will be a new normalPelosis trip to Taipei angered Beijing which views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland by force if necessaryTaiwan has accused China of using the recent drills as practice for an invasionWe didnt go there to talk about China We went there to praise Taiwan And we went there to show our friendship to say China cannot isolate Taiwan Pelosi asserted during the news conference on Wednesday after her trip to AsiaThe visit delivered a clear statement that Americas commitment to a free and open IndoPacific is unshakeable Pelosi notedThe US along with several world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free open and thriving IndoPacific in the backdrop of Chinas rising military manoeuvring in the resourcerich regionChina claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea though Taiwan the Philippines Brunei Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea China also has territorial disputes with Japan in the East China SeaPelosi said her bilateral discussions centred around seizing opportunities and addressing shared challenges including upholding the democracy in the face of autocracy fostering robust economic growth including through the IndoPacific Economic Framework and in governance responding to Covid19 and climate crisisHouse Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Gregory Meeks told reporters that Pelosis visit to Taiwan illustrated that no matter what Chinese President Xi Jinping said the US was going to stand by its friends and alliesIndianAmerican Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi who was part of the Congressional delegation to Taiwan was also present at the news conferenceHe said the delegation discussed the backlog of the pending arms sales to TaiwanApart from Taiwan Pelosis delegation also visited Singapore Malaysia South Korea and JapanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever