China carried out fresh military drills around Taiwan on Monday, Beijing said, defying calls for it to end its largest-ever exercises encircling the democratic island.
Live fire drills kicked off Thursday, a day after a controversial visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Those exercises were expected to draw to a close on Sunday, but neither Beijing nor Taipei confirmed their conclusion.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continued to carry out practical joint exercises and training in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island, focusing on organizing joint anti-submarine and sea assault operations,” the Chinese military’s eastern command said in a statement.
Beijing has deployed fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles in what analysts have described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of the self-ruled island — which China claims as its territory.
Taiwan’s transport ministry Sunday said six of the seven “temporary danger zones” China had warned airlines to avoid ceased to be in effect as of noon on Sunday, signalling a partial drawdown of the drills.
Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province.
Tensions between Taiwan and China rise
China was seen firing enraged missiles as well as deploying fighter jets and warships around Taiwan.
Multiple no-go danger zones were declared around Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army. This disturbance choked some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, sometimes which comes from within 20-kilometres of the island’s shores.
Beijing found this to be a ‘necessary’ response towards the democratic, self-ruled island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. To this Washington responded that China’s leaders had ‘chosen to overreact’.
Pelosi however defended her visit, declaring that Washington would ‘not allow’ China to isolate Taiwan.
“We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in Asia, changing the status quo in Taiwan,” she said as she addressed the reporters in Tokyo.