Pelosi's Taiwan visit counter to law

China's response to United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the Taiwan island earlier this month is a concrete step toward maintaining international rule of law, a senior diplomat said.

Pelosi's Taiwan visit ran counter to the international law's principle of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the basic norm for international relations of non-interference into a country's internal affairs, Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng said on Wednesday.

It also transgressed the Cairo Declaration released in 1943, the Potsdam Declaration issued in 1945 and the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 passed in 1971, causing serious damage to the international order, Xie said at a seminar hosted by the Supreme People's Court.

Following Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in spite of its repeated warnings, the mainland conducted military drills around the island for days, announced sanctions on Pelosi and her immediate family members, while canceling some military talks and suspending counternarcotics and other cooperation programs with the US.

The countermeasures have a full and solid legal basis, and are aimed at not only protecting China's own legitimate interests, but maintaining the common interests of the world, especially those of developing countries, Xie said.

Noting that more than 170 countries and international organizations have voiced their support for the one-China principle since Pelosi's Taiwan visit, Xie urged the US to follow the common will of the international community and stop challenging the international law's principles and undermining the international rule of law.

Speaking of the current global situation marred by turmoil and conflicts, Xie said world peace and development are being increasingly threatened by unilateralism, protectionism, hegemony and power politics.

The cause of the conflicts, he said, is the "wanton sabotage" of the international law's principles by "some countries", which adapt the international law selectively, seek to form small factions, and abuse the use of "long-arm jurisdiction" and unilateral sanctions, while interfering brutally in other countries' internal affairs.

China, on the other hand, will continue to champion the international system centered on the UN and the international order based on the international law, the diplomat said.

The country will also insist on adapting and interpreting the international law fully and accurately, and continue to practice true multilateralism, he added.

In another development, Xinhua News Agency published a report containing a list of 11 facts about Pelosi's visit on Wednesday to refute the US' accusations around China's countermeasures being an overreaction and US attempts to mislead the world about the Taiwan question.

"Pelosi's visit to Taiwan has seriously undermined the political foundation of China-US relations and created obstacles to exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. The US must take full responsibility for it," the Xinhua report said.