Pelosi insisted to visit China Taiwan  

Media: Utterly Reckless!

Editor's Note: Welcome to the CCCEU Weekly Update. In this edition, we highly concerned about Peloxi to visit China's Taiwan and comprehensive point of view of all parties. Enjoy reading and have a lovely weekend!      

On August 2, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China, despite China's firm opposition.

The Chinese side responded 

Spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense Wu Qian on Tuesday released a statement in response to the visit to China's Taiwan region by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The following is the full text of the remarks:

On Aug. 2, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited China's Taiwan region. The Chinese side strongly condemns and firmly opposes this visit. Despite the Chinese side's repeated warnings of the serious consequences this visit would cause, Pelosi insisted on making the wrong move, maliciously provoking and creating the crisis, which seriously violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, seriously eroded the political foundation of the China-U.S. relations, and seriously undermined China-U.S. state-to-state and military-to-military relations. This act of the U.S. side has sent a seriously wrong signal to the separatists for "Taiwan independence" and further escalated tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

On August 3, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying answered reporters' questions at a regular press conference on the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to China's Taiwan region. Hua Chunying said "the issue of her visit is not about democracy, but China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. What she has done is definitely not about upholding or defending democracy, but a provocation and infringement on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. "

On August 5, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Announces China's Sanctions on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Views of foreign media

CNN has commented that Pelosi's trip could increase instability and conflict in U.S.-China relations. Pelosi's insistence on visiting Taiwan, despite the discouragement of all parties, will aggravate the deteriorating relations between the U.S. and China and make the situation more tense.

The New York Times points out Pelosi's trip to Taiwan was an unnecessary provocation to China. Columnist Thomas Friedman writes "Nothing good will come of it. Taiwan will not be more secure or more prosperous as a result of this purely symbolic visit, and a lot of bad things could happen. These include a Chinese military response that could result in the U.S. being plunged into indirect conflicts with a nuclear-armed Russia and a nuclear-armed China at the same time."

Deutsche Welle published an interview with Zack Cooper on July 30, Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan trip would be 'high risk, low reward', in which he argued that Pelosi's trip would be unwise. "The reason that I have questioned the wisdom of this visit is I don't think there's very much that it will achieve, and, in fact, I actually think in some ways it's undermining the unity within the US about cross-strait issues."

At the same time, German media tagesschau pointed out t from an economic perspective that the escalation of the dispute in China could seriously hit the global economy. Western countries are extremely dependent on the chip industry. During the epidemic, the supply of important computer chips exceeded the demand. The tensions between the US and China have raised concerns about a possible escalation of the conflict in Taiwan due to a possible visit to Taipei by US leader Nancy Pelosi.

Risks to Taiwan

Military risk: According to Xinhua, the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday organized joint combat training exercises in the northern, southwestern and southeastern waters and airspace off the Taiwan Island.

Economic risks: According to Deutsche Welle, on Wednesday (August 3), China's General Administration of Customs issued a notice suspending "the import of citrus fruits and chilled white scallops and frozen mackerel from Taiwan to the mainland", and China's Ministry of Commerce also announced the suspension of natural sand exports to Taiwan with immediate effect. Earlier, China also announced the suspension of more than 100 food imports from Taiwan.

China-U.S. Relations

China halts US cooperation on range of issues after Pelosi's Taiwan visit.

China halted relations with the United States on a range of key issues following a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Guardian reported. The halted interactions ranged from climate talks, to dialogues between the leaders of Chinese and US military theatres, to the working meeting of Chinese and US defence ministries and consultation mechanism on maritime military safety between the countries.

Meanwhile, as reported by Bloomberg, a giant Chinese supplier of electric-vehicle batteries decided to push back announcing a multibillion-dollar North American plant to supply Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. due to tensions raised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chinese FM puts forward 4 proposals on promoting East Asia cooperation

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi presented four proposals on promoting East Asia cooperation when attending the ASEAN Plus Three (10+3) foreign ministers' meeting here on Thursday.

At the meeting, all parties fully recognized the significant role of the 10+3 cooperation in regional countries' success in combating COVID-19 and recovering economy. They agreed to speed up regional economic integration, fully implement the RCEP, help countries increase economic resilience, ensure the smooth operation of industrial and supply chains, and jointly meet food and energy security challenges.

China assumes UN Security Council presidency for August

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday assumed the rotating presidency of the Security Council for August with the priorities of facilitating dialogue and cooperation for common security and supporting Africa's capacity-building for sustaining peace.

European Commission disburses first tranche of the new €1 billion macro-financial assistance for Ukraine

The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has today disbursed the first half (€500 million) of a new €1 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) operation for Ukraine. The second tranche (another €500 million) was disbursed on 2 August. The decision about this new exceptional MFA was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 12 July 2022.

Eurostat: EU government R&D budget increases by 6% in 2021

According to Eurostat, in 2021, the total government budget allocations for R&D (GBARD) across the EU stood at €109 250 million, equivalent to 0.8% of GDP. This is a 6% increase compared with 2020 (€102 791 million) and a 35% increase compared with 2011 (€81 139 million).

Global coal demand is set to return to its all-time high in 2022

According to an IEA report, based on current economic and market trends, global coal consumption is forecast to rise by 0.7% in 2022 to 8 billion tonnes, assuming the Chinese economy recovers as expected in the second half of the year, the IEA's July 2022 Coal Market Update says. This global total would match the annual record set in 2013, and coal demand is likely to increase further next year to a new all-time high.

What are experts talking about?

"After 20 years, the euro to the dollar again 1:1, feel the "pain" not only Europe" published by China Daily. The article points out that the euro-dollar exchange rate has recently fallen to 1:1 again, and the euro-dollar "equivalence" is mainly triggered by multiple factors such as the European energy crisis, interest rate differentials and the strengthening of the dollar, which will further push up the inflation rate in the euro area, aggravate the trade imbalance in Europe and make it more difficult for the European Central Bank to make adjustments.

"Why Pelosi's Visit to Taiwan Is Utterly Reckless" by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Nothing good will come of it. Taiwan will not be more secure or more prosperous as a result of this purely symbolic visit, and a lot of bad things could happen. These include a Chinese military response that could result in the U.S. being plunged into indirect conflicts with a nuclear-armed Russia and a nuclear-armed China at the same time.

Please note: the English version of this issue is slightly different from our Chinese one. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official position of the CCCEU.