Officials from Taiwan said Chinese aircraft and warships rehearsed an attack on the island, part of Beijing’s retaliation for a visit there by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that has also seen it halt talks with the United States on issues including defence and climate change.
Pelosi’s brief visit this week to the self-ruled island that China regards as its territory infuriated Beijing and prompted unprecedented military drills that have included ballistic missiles fired over the capital, Taipei.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of taking “irresponsible steps” by halting key communication channels with Washington, and said its actions over Taiwan showed a move from prioritising peaceful resolution towards use of force.
The Chinese exercises – centred on six locations around the island – began on Thursday and are scheduled to last until midday today.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said multiple Chinese ships and planes conducted missions in the Taiwan Strait, with some crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, in what the Taiwan military described as a simulation attack on the island.
China’s Eastern Theatre Command said it had continued to conduct sea and air joint exercises north, southwest and east of Taiwan.
It said its focus was on testing the system’s land strike and sea assault capabilities.
Chinese warships and aircraft continued to “press” into the median line of the Taiwan Strait yesterday afternoon, a person familiar with security planning said.
Off Taiwan’s east coast and close to Japanese islands, Chinese warships and drones simulated attacks on US and Japanese warships, the person added.
Taiwan’s army broadcast a warning while deploying air reconnaissance patrol forces and ships to monitor and putting shore-based missiles on stand-by.
The island’s defence ministry said it fired flares late on Friday to warn away seven drones flying over its Kinmen islands and unidentified aircraft flying over its Matsu islands.
Both island groups are close to mainland China’s coast.
Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday in the highest-level visit to the island by a US official in decades, despite Chinese warnings.
Shortly after her delegation left Japan on Friday, the final stop of a week-long Asia tour, China announced that it was halting dialogue with the United States in a series of areas including contacts between theatre-level military commanders and on climate change.
Speaking during a visit to the Philippines, Blinken said the United States had been hearing concern from allies about what he called China’s dangerous and destabilising actions around Taiwan, but Washington would remain steady in its handling of the situation and sought to avoid escalating the situation.
He said China’s cessation of bilateral dialogue in eight key areas were moves that would punish the world, not just the United States.
Jing Quan, a senior Chinese Embassy official in Washington, said: “The only way out of this crisis is that the US side must take measures immediately to rectify its mistakes and eliminate the grave impact of Pelosi’s visit.”
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday there was nothing for the United States to rectify. — Reuters
