Pelosi's Taiwan trip not related to 'democracy'

United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan had nothing to do with "democracy", but was a political show that challenged the universally acknowledged one-China principle, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Defending her visit at a recent news conference, Pelosi claimed that the trip was about Taiwan's "democracy".

Challenging Pelosi's comments, Wang said on Friday that what she said "proved further that the visit was connivance and support for 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces".

By publicly calling Taiwan a "country", Pelosi's comments were a serious political provocation violating the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US joint communiques, Wang said at a daily news conference.

The visit was an official one intended to incite confrontation across the Taiwan Straits and interfere in China's internal affairs, as the Democratic Progressive Party authority is pushing ahead with "de-sinicization" and "incremental independence" on the island, and spares no efforts to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan", Wang added.

As a result, China has every right to take countermeasures, which are necessary for safeguarding its own sovereignty, territorial integrity and peace across the Straits, the spokesman said, pointing out that it's futile for Pelosi to use "democracy" to justify her visit.

"The visit trampled on democracy, and showed that the United States puts its own selfish interests above international justice,"Wang said.

"If Pelosi really cares about democracy and human rights, she should visit Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, and repent for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed by the US military," Wang added.

In another development, Wang said on Friday that China's suspension of its counternarcotics cooperation with the US, as part of its countermeasures against Pelosi's visit to China's Taiwan region, is totally justified and appropriate.

Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said recently that the suspension was "unacceptable".

Dismissing Gupta's remarks, Wang said the root cause of fentanyl abuse in the US lies in the country itself, and China has made "huge efforts to help the US address the issue".

Citing the International Narcotics Control Board, Wang said the US is the largest country in terms of fentanyl production and consumption, and the US people, who account for 5 percent of the world population, consume 80 percent of the world's opioids.

Also, the US, which has sanctioned China's laboratories, including the material evidence appraisal center of the Ministry of Public Security for over two years under the pretext of so-called human rights issues in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, should be held fully accountable for the disruption of bilateral counternarcotics cooperation, Wang said.

Also on Friday, the Foreign Ministry announced the imposition of sanctions on Lithuanian Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications Agne Vaiciukeviciute, who had visited Taiwan recently.

China will also suspend all forms of exchange with Vaiciukeviciute's ministry and exchanges and cooperation with Lithuania in the field of international road transport, the Foreign Ministry said.