Aug 4, 2022
US delayed routine ICBM test to deescalate China standoff: White House
The Pentagon on Thursday postponed a test of the Minuteman III missile.
A defense official said the delay was to avoid exacerbating tensions with China.
Beijing has launched live-fire exercises around Taiwan after Nancy Pelosi’s visit.
The official said the postponement was to ‘remove any misunderstandings given the [People Republic of China’s] actions around Taiwan’.
Tests were delayed earlier this year because of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
The U.S. Air Force had planned to conduct the test launch this week from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the report added.
U.S. officials didn’t define how long the delay would last, but one said it might last 10 days, the Journal reported.
China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles near Taiwan in a show of force in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, a day after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a trip to the self-ruled island.
Pentagon officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Xi Jinping announced the exercises using Pelosi’s trip to the island – which took place from Tuesday and Wednesday – as an excuse.
She is the most-senior politician to visit since Newt Gingrich in 1997, but her trip came shortly after a Senate delegation visit drew no response.
Earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken attempted to ease tensions and accused China of trying to manufacture a crisis.
‘We remain committed to our One China policy guided by our commitments to the Taiwan Relations Act, communiqués. … And I want to emphasize: nothing has changed our position and I hope very much that Beijing will not manufacture a crisis or seek a pretense to increase its aggressive military action,’ he said at the ASEAN-US ministerial meeting in Cambodia.
Much of the world believed that escalation could have ‘unintended consequences’ that would serve no-one’s interests,’ he added.
Washington has reached out to Beijing to deescalate tensions, he said.
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