Officials of Taiwan have said that the Chinese performed an attack simulation exercise on Saturday in retaliation to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the Island
The visit to Taiwan was an announced stop in her week-long Asia tour in which she made visits to Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
This infuriated the Chinese as they make territorial claims on Taiwan and perceive it as their ‘break way province’. In retaliation, the Chinese fired several ballistic missiles and some landed in the Japanese EEZ and flew over the Taiwanese capital, Taipei.
The Chinese announced live fire drills and exercises around the island and issued NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) which disrupted shipping movements and flights.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said that several Chinese warplanes have carried out exercises and missions in the Taiwan Strait and some jets even crossed the ‘median line’ (an unofficial buffer separating the two sides). Taiwan has described these acts as ‘simulation attacks’.
On Friday, China’s military said it conducted air and sea drills to the north, southwest and east of Taiwan to test its forces’ “joint combat capabilities”.
The defence ministry of Taiwan pointed out that the Chinese side was flying drones over Matsu and Kinmen Islands. Both these island clusters fall close to mainland China’s coast.
Soon after Pelosi and her delegation left Japan on Friday, concluding her week-long Asia tour, China announced that they would be ending talks and communication with the US which included contacts between theatre-level military commanders, transnational crime and climate change.
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken on his visit to The Philippines slammed China and said, “The cessation of dialogue on issues including narcotics and transnational crime, was “irresponsible”, and security contacts were vital to ease tension.”
