Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying yesterday said that the kind of democracy referred to by Pelosi is "like nothing but a robe with lice crawling all over it which may look opulent from a distance, but could not stand close scrutiny."

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Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying yesterday said that the kind of democracy referred to by Pelosi is "like nothing but a robe with lice crawling all over it which may look opulent from a distance, but could not stand close scrutiny."

Digital Desk: Vietnamese airlines have been asked to avoid flying near Taiwan for a few days as China conducts military exercises amid tensions with the United States over White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

According to local media, Dinh Viet Thang, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, received an official notice from Chinese authorities asking airlines operating in Asia to avoid flying near the island of Taiwan from 11 a.m. Thursday until Friday.

As a result, CAAV has advised Vietnamese airlines to change their flight routes.

"Airlines can continue to operate flights to Taiwan normally and can decide on their own to postpone or cancel flights as needed," Thang said, according to sources.

Pelosi's visit, which coincided with the highest level of US visits in more than two decades, infuriated China, and the communist country warned the US that it would "pay the price."

Because of her high-level position as House Speaker, Pelosi's visit has heightened US-China tensions more than other members of Congress' visits. She is the first House Speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, following Newt Gingrich in 1997.

The Chinese military had announced holding live-fire naval exercises in the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi's visit which is mainly seen to build security and economic momentum for the Indo-Pacific and is also seen as a move by the US to build pressure on China over its claim on Taiwan, responding to which the Pentagon also sent an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea.

"We see the empty pledge and so-called strength of this type of democracy from what the US military has done in Iraq and Syria and from its retreat from Kabul," she said further.

China dispatched 27 aircraft to Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Wednesday, the island's Defence Ministry said, just hours after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taipei.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any interaction between Taiwanese officials and foreign governments, announced a series of military exercises around the island, issued a series of harsh statements, and summoned US Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Furthermore, China has decided not to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Cambodia.

China's customs department has suspended imports of citrus fruits, chilled white striped hairtail, and frozen horse mackerel from Taiwan, while the commerce ministry has prohibited natural sand exports to Taiwan.

Meanwhile, in Washington, US National Security spokesman John Kirby stated that there is "no reason for this visit to become a precipitating event for a crisis or conflict." "China appears to be positioning itself to potentially take additional steps in the coming days and possibly over longer time horizons," Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.

Provocations could include missile launches in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan, as well as large-scale breaches of Taiwan's air defence identification zone by warplanes. He predicted that China would make public statements similar to those made recently, claiming that the Taiwan Strait is not an international waterway.