John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, told reporters Thursday that China is intentionally overreacting to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan to escalate tensions and create a new “status quo” in the region.
Kirby’s comments came after China launched 11 ballistic missiles toward Taiwan hours after Pelosi departed, which he called “irresponsible and at odds with our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the region.”
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“China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” he continued. “We anticipated that China might take steps like this.”
Kirby specifically predicted that China would continue “boiling the frog” and escalating military action throughout the Taiwan Strait in the near future but reiterated that the “United States is prepared for what Beijing chooses to do.”
He added that while the U.S. will not seek a conflict, “we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and the skies of the Western Pacific consistent with international law, as we have for decades, supporting Taiwan, and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Kirby faced a number of follow-up questions about his comments throughout the briefing, and he continued to accuse Beijing of creating a false pretext to move against Taiwan.
“There’s no reason for this manufactured crisis to exist. The Chinese have used Speaker Pelosi’s trip as a pretext,” he outlined. “Yes, they’re claiming it’s a protest. I got it, but it’s also a pretext to try to up the ante intentionally to actually try to set a new status quo, to get to a new normal, where they think they can compete. And my point in coming out here today was to make it clear that we’re not going to accept this new status quo.”
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You can watch Thursday’s briefing in full below.
