China summons U.S. envoy Nicholas Burns, warns America shall 'pay price' as Pelosi visits Taiwan

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng “urgently summoned” the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns late on August night and lodged stern representations and strong protests over Ms. Pelosi’s visit

China has summoned the American envoy in Beijing to lodge a stern protest over Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to Taipei, warning that Washington will “pay a price” for its “mistakes” and asked it to stop using the Taiwan issue to contain China in any form.

Bristling with anger over Ms. Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, China also carried out live-fire missile drills in Taiwan Straits besides flying a number of Chinese fighter jets near Taiwanese airspace.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Xie Feng “urgently summoned” the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns late on August night and lodged stern representations and strong protests over Ms. Pelosi’s visit, the highest by a top U.S. leader to Taipei in 25 years.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway Province which will one day unite with it. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to reunify the self-ruled island with the mainland.

Noting that the U.S. side shall “pay the price” for its “mistakes” for going ahead with the visit disregarding stern warnings from Beijing, Mr. Xie urged the U.S. to immediately address its wrongdoings, take practical measures to undo the adverse effects caused by Ms. Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The U.S. must not go further down the wrong path, escalating tensions and making the situation across the Taiwan Strait and China-U.S. relations irreparable, Mr. Xie said.

He added that the U.S. should stop playing the “Taiwan card”, stop using Taiwan to contain China in any form, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.