WAR BEGINS! China Continues Live- Fire Military Drills Around Taiwan Following US Visit.
China continues live-fire military drills around Taiwan following US visit. China on Sunday continued its controversial military exercises around Taiwan, in what is due to be the last day of the manoeuvres that have considerably increased tensions in the region following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei. Twenty Chinese military aircraft and 14 warships had taken part in Saturday's exercises, the Taiwan military reported. Chinese drones were again observed over the Taiwan-administered island of Kinmen, which lies just 10 km from the port city of Xiamen on the Chinese mainland, reports said. Taiwan’s armed forces issued an alert, dispatched air and naval patrols around the island and activated land-based missile systems in response to the Chinese exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said. The ministry said that zones declared by China as no-go areas during the exercises for other ships and aircraft had “seriously damaged the peace.” It emphasized that Taiwan’s military does not seek war, but would prepare and respond to it accordingly. China’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement Saturday that it had carried out military exercises as planned in the sea and airspaces to the north, southwest, and east of Taiwan, with a focus on “testing the capabilities” of its land strike and sea assault systems. China launched live-fire military drills following Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan earlier this week, saying it violated the “one-China” policy. China sees the island as a breakaway province to be annexed by force if necessary and considers visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognizing its sovereignty. Taiwan’s army also said it detected four unmanned aerial vehicles flying in the vicinity of the offshore county of Kinmen on Friday night and fired warning flares in response. The four drones, which Taiwan believed were Chinese, were spotted over waters around the Kinmen island group and the nearby Lieyu Island and Beiding islet, according to Taiwan’s Kinmen Defense Command.
