WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the below statement following China’s live-fire exercises around Taiwan:
“China’s dangerous and provocative live-fire exercises around Taiwan are yet another chapter in Beijing’s unrelenting efforts to bully and coerce Taipei, and to upend cross-Strait peace and stability by changing the status quo with Taiwan. The extensive drills – which essentially represent a blockade – create immense risks for passengers in civilian airlines and ships on the high seas.
“To be clear, Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan provides no justification for this sort of measure. Beijing should not be under any false illusion that these military drills will lessen resolve in the United States or elsewhere, or erode our commitment to stand with the people of Taiwan and their right to determine their own future. Just the opposite.”
###