China has advised Vietnam Airlines to postpone or cancel flights near Taiwan

• Image Credit: Internet

• Aug 4, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

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."

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">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.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">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.

color:black;mso-themecolor:text1">As a result, CAAV has advised Vietnamese
airlines to change their flight routes.

mso-themecolor:text1">"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.

mso-themecolor:text1"> 

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.

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."

"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.