Penny Wong’s move to avoid infuriating China after Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

Penny Wong has re-iterated Australia’s belief that Taiwan is part of China and revealed she has not spoken to any Taiwanese officials in recent days in comments that may help sooth tensions with Beijing.

The Foreign Minister again called for de-escalation after China launched ballistic missiles during live-fire exercises near Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to the island last week.

China sees the island as a breakaway province to be annexed by force if necessary, and considers visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognising its sovereignty. 

On Friday, Senator Wong released a statement criticising China’s launch of missiles into waters off Taiwan’s coast as ‘disproportionate and destabilising’.

But her comments were met with a furious rebuke from the Chinese embassy in Canberra, which released a statement saying ‘finger pointing’ against Beijing was ‘unacceptable’.

China claims it was merely ‘safeguarding’ its sovereign territory with the missile strikes. 

In her calls for calm on Monday, Senator Wong avoided criticising the Chinese strikes and re-enforced Australia’s commitment to a ‘one-China’ policy which states that Taiwan is part of China.

Asked if she has spoken to any Taiwanese officials in recent days, Senator Wong said: ‘No, not as yet.’

Asked if she planned to speak to the Taiwanese government at a ministerial level, she hosed down the idea, saying: ‘We will continue to act in ways consistent with our long-standing bipartisan one-China policy and I think our public statements are clear.’

It is likely that The Australian Office in Taipei – a de facto embassy – is in contact with the Taiwanese government but Senator Wong does not want to risk infuriating Beijing by publicly announcing any higher-level talks.

But she also played down the chance of meeting the Chinese ambassador.

‘I will express my views publicly, if there’s going to be discussion with the ambassador it will generally be at departmental level,’ she said.

Speaking after a meeting with the Latvian foreign minister in Canberra, Senator Wong urged restraint over Taiwan.

‘What is most crucial at the moment is that the temperature is lowered and calm is restored when it comes to cross-Strait tensions,’ she told reporters.

‘Australia is not the only country that is concerned about escalation – the region is concerned about escalation – the region is concerned about the risk of conflict.’

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that Taiwan is not part of the United States in the latest diplomatic escalation after Pelosi’s congressional delegation trip through Asia.

Wang said during a visit to Bangladesh on Sunday that the US is engaged in ‘sophistry’, or fallacious and deceiving arguments, when it comes to its intentions regarding Taiwan.

He also said China’s actions when it comes to the island are appropriate and legal and made in attempts to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Beijing raged at Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defense. On Friday, China also imposed sanctions on the California Democrat.

‘In disregard of China’s grave concerns and firm opposition, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi insisted on visiting China’s Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It gravely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,’ a China foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

It added: ‘In response to Pelosi’s egregious provocation, China decides to adopt sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members in accordance with relevant laws of the People’s Republic of China.’

Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday after days of speculation about whether she would make the trip and potentially intensify tensions with China, which views Taiwan as a territory that will eventually be reunified with the mainland.

With the visit, Pelosi became the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to visit Taiwan in decades. It prompted China to launch its largest-ever military exercises surrounding Taiwan, which drew to a close on Sunday following Pelosi’s controversial visit to the self-ruled island.