'Why is China so worried about Pelosi's Taiwan visit?'

DHARAMSHALA: Why should China be so concerned about US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit as she had never said that the self-governed island is not part of China, said Dolma Tsering, Deputy Speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile on Wednesday as she rebuked Chinese aggression over Pelosi's high-level visit.

Pelosi's high-stakes trip to Taiwan came to an end today as she departed from the self-ruled island after a short and gripping trip which raised tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing announced live firing as part of its military operations near Taiwan and also scrambled jets in the air identification zone of the island.

"To visit a country, by a head of parliament, I think that shows the freedom in the democratic world," Dolma Tsering told ANI.

She also rebuffed reports of Chinese incursion in Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone and she said "What more can China do?" "Whenever a free country shows its freedom in the free world, the only thing China can do is show their military might to the world and try to intimidate. Will the spirit of the free world be intimidated by the jets flying in the no fly zone? It's a bit of a question," she said.

"Even if they ban trade or something, it is reciprocal. If Taiwan is being targeted and their goods are banned in China, China will also suffer the shortage of it. So it's always reciprocal," she said while adding that "China needs to understand how the democratic and free world works." Penpa Tsering, President of the Tibetan government-in-exile, also slammed China's aggressive behaviour. He said ratcheting up Pelosi's Taiwan visit does not bode well for the future relationship between the US and China. Penpa Tsering told ANI that Pelosi's visit to Taiwan is completely justified from a US point of view.

"China ratcheting up this issue does not bode well for the future relationship between the US and China," he said.

"China has already banned more than 100 products from Taiwan. This may also have future impact on US-China relations and it is something to watch out for," he said amid reports of China's ban on certain imports from Taiwan.

The President of the Tibetan government-in-exile said that he fails to understand why China needs to exert its sovereignty over Taiwan when the self-governed island was never ruled at any time by any Chinese dynasty.

"I don't understand when Taiwan is living so peacefully in a democratic set up where the leaders are elected by the people, why China needs to exert its sovereignty over Taiwan because Taiwan was never ruled at any time by any Chinese dynasty. Therefore, Taiwan belongs to the indigenous people of Taiwan," he said.

Besides intimidating Taiwan, China's authoritarian government under the Chinese Communist Party systemically represses fundamental rights in occupied Tibet. Under President Xi Jinping, the government has detained human rights defenders, tightened control over civil society and media.

Rights groups say China imposes particularly heavy-handed control in Xinjiang and Tibet.