Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly says ‘all options are on the table’ after Canada’s charge d’affaires in Beijing was lectured by Chinese authorities following House Speaker’s whirlwind visit to Taiwan United States Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
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“Nancy Pelosi’s visit cannot be used as a pretext to increase tensions, to destabilize the region, and therefore we condemn this very aggressive rhetoric. We call for calm,” said Ms. Joly in an interview with the QMI Agency.
China continued its military exercises around Taiwan on Friday by flying 68 planes and sailing 13 ships beyond the center line of the independent island, a sharp increase from the 27 planes sent the day before.
Minister Joly did not undertake to respond to China by lecturing Cong Peiwu, China’s ambassador to Canada.
The latter published a text Thursday in the “Ottawa Life Magazine” in which he denounces the actions of the United States, but only once mentions Canada.
“The issue of Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue at the very heart of China-US relations,” he said, adding that Nancy Pelosi’s visit “sends a very bad signal to the separatist forces” of the Taiwanese government.
The charge d’affaires in Beijing, Jim Nickel, was not the only one to have been summoned: all of the highest diplomats of the G7 countries seconded to Beijing were called by the Chinese government as a warning.
Ms. Joly did not detail the content of this meeting.
“I am working with my colleagues to find out how we react to this, and how we can gradually calm things down,” she said on the phone.