BEIJING, Aug.4 -- Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made remarks Thursday on the series of military countermeasures taken by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in response to the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to China's Taiwan region. The following is the full text of the remarks:
On August 2, the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited China's Taiwan region, which runs counter to the United States' promise to not support "Taiwan Independence". The visit is a serious political provocation against China, a heavy damage to the relations between the two countries and their militaries, and a huge impact and threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China is strongly indignant about and firmly opposed to it.
The Chinese military always matches its words with deeds. The multi-subject targeted drills including sea target assaults, strikes on ground targets and airspace control operations and the precision-guided munitions live-fire practice conducted by troops of multiple arms and services under the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan Island are actually solemn deterrence against the collusion between the US and Taiwan.
We sternly warn the US side and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities that the scheme to use Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail, and seeking foreign support to gain "Taiwan independence" is a dead end. The collusion and provocations made by the US and the DPP authorities will only push Taiwan into the abyss of disaster, and bring great suffering to Taiwan compatriots.
It is the firm will of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people to resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and China's reunification is an unstoppable historical trend. Public opinion cannot be violated, and those who play with fire will perish by it. We will resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and never allow any room for separatist moves toward "Taiwan independence" and interference by external forces in whatever form.