“The drills focused on joint ground fire strikes and long-range air strike capabilities,” the command said in a statement posted on its official account on the social media platform Weibo, without specifying whether the drills have ended. The exercises, planned to take place in six zones around the island, began on Thursday and were scheduled to last until Sunday at noon local time in Beijing, Chinese state media reported. Taiwan’s defense ministry on Sunday said it spotted several Chinese aircraft, warships and drones operating around the Taiwan Strait that morning in what it called a “simulated attack on Taiwan’s main island and naval vessels of Taiwan” — a tongue-in-cheek call from Saturday when he said Chinese military exercises around the island could be a “possible simulated attack.” Taiwan’s military has been “closely monitoring” the situation and has deployed aircraft and ships to respond “appropriately” to Chinese military exercises around the island, the defense ministry added. He also said that drones “went adrift” on remote islands controlled by Taiwan. The ministry did not immediately give an exact number of Chinese aircraft, ships or drones spotted on Sunday morning or whether they crossed the sensitive median line in the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from mainland China. China announced the drills — the scale of which marks a major escalation from previous activities — within an hour of Pelosi and a congressional delegation arriving in Taiwan on Tuesday night. The stop, which was expected but not announced in advance, was part of a larger tour of Asia. Chinese officials had repeatedly warned Washington of unspecified repercussions ahead of the expected trip. In addition to the drills, Beijing also unleashed a series of diplomatic sanctions, including canceling future phone talks between Chinese and United States defense leaders and suspending bilateral climate talks. The Chinese Communist Party considers self-ruled Taiwan its territory, although it does not has ever controlled it, and has long vowed to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland — by force if necessary. The drills in previous days had seen a series of air and sea operations around the island, including the launch of 11 ballistic missiles on Thursday — some of which flew over the island of Taiwan and landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. This was the first time China had sent missiles over the island. On Saturday, 14 ships and 20 planes operated by the Chinese military were spotted around the strait, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry. Of the 20 aircraft, 14 crossed the median line, he added. On Friday, 68 Chinese warplanes were reported in the Taiwan Strait, according to the ministry. Of those, 49 entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone — an airspace reserve commonly referred to as the ADIZ. That was just a few planes short of the record set last year, when 56 Chinese warplanes entered the ADIZ on the same day. Taiwanese Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang on Sunday reiterated Taiwan’s condemnation of the drills. “Not only Taiwan but also other countries in the region as well as freedom-loving countries like the US and so on have strongly protested and condemned China’s arrogant military operations that disrupt regional peace and stability,” he said during a press conference. “We call on the Chinese government not to flex its military muscles and disrupt regional peace.” A spokesman for the US National Security Council on Saturday called China’s recent military activities around Taiwan a “significant escalation of China’s efforts to change the status quo.” “They are provocative, irresponsible and increase the risk of miscalculation,” the spokesman said. “It is also contrary to our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which is what the world expects.” US allies have also condemned China’s actions, including a joint statement issued on Friday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa after they met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers. Meeting in Cambodia. The diplomats “condemned (China’s) launch of ballistic missiles,” including those the Japanese government said landed in its exclusive economic zone, for “increasing tension and destabilizing the region” and called on China to “immediately stop military exercises “, in the statement released by the US State Department. China hit back on Saturday night, with its embassy in Australia calling the US “the biggest saboteur and destabilizer of peace in the Taiwan Strait” and questioning the “legal basis” of Japan’s claims about the missile launches. “China is a victim of political provocation by the US. The Chinese government’s actions to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and curb separatist activities are legal and justified,” the embassy said in a statement.
