China has conducted fresh military drills near Taiwan on Monday, a day after a delegation of the United States lawmakers arrived in Taipei to meet the island’s leader.
The military drills exercises are “a solemn response to political plays by the US and Taiwan that are undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” a senior Chinese military official said. “We will take all necessary measures and resolutely defend national sovereignty and the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense confirmed the Chinese military’s claim, confirming that 30 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes and five vessels were detected in the Taiwan Strait on Monday.
The five-member US congressional delegation — led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts arrived in Taipei on Sunday on a two-day visit. The unannounced trip of the US lawmakers trip comes on the heels of a similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, earlier this month, which had heightened fears of conflict.
The delegation met with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, according to Washington’s de facto embassy.
“The delegation had an opportunity to exchange views with Taiwan counterparts on a wide range of issues of importance to both the United States and Taiwan,” it said.
The back-to-back visits of top US officials come at a time when there are military tensions between Beijing and the self-ruled island.
In response to the delegation’s visit, Beijing called on Washington to “stop going further down the wrong path of hollowing out and distorting the one-China principle, so as not to cause further damage to China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but says it will use force if necessary to take the island and bristles at any perceived treatment of it as a sovereign nation-state.
“China will take firm and forceful measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a media briefing.
China had also conducted military drills earlier, sending warships, missiles and jets into the waters and skies around the island to express its anger over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.