A loud sound of what appeared to be artillery fire was heard in northern Taiwan shortly after 2 p.m., while Taipei issued a flight warning suggesting pilots avoid an additional area east of the country. Taiwan’s government has accused Beijing of trying to change the military status quo in the region and said it was prepared for the impact of the exercises. Pelosi became the first Speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan in 25 years this week as part of a trip to Asia during which she pledged “ironclad” support for the country’s democratically elected government. Beijing, which has accused Pelosi of violating its claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, expected her to leave the island on Wednesday for South Korea before starting the drills. Analysts said the delay helped avoid direct conflict with the US, but the exercises were expected to greatly exceed the scale, intensity and complexity of those carried out during the last Taiwan Strait crisis 26 years ago. They said the maneuvers risked undermining a fragile, decades-old peace between China and Taiwan, which has enjoyed de facto independence since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, and could spark a clash between Beijing and the US. “From noon today to noon on August 7, major military drill operations will be held and live fire firing will be held,” Chinese state television said on its official Weibo account. “Six areas around the island have been selected as locations for these exercises. During this period, the relevant ships and aircraft must not enter the relevant water and airspaces!’ At 1:30 p.m., the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said it had begun long-range fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. “Shortly after 1 p.m., PLA ground forces conducted long-range fire drills in the Taiwan Straits,” it said on Weibo. “They carried out precision strikes on a specific area in the eastern part of the Taiwan Strait and achieved the expected result.” The US military said one of its aircraft carriers was conducting routine operations east of the Philippines. “The USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group are underway in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of a routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said. Two other US warships have been sighted south of Japan and east of Taiwan. China’s two aircraft carriers have also been out of port since early this week, in areas north and south of the Taiwan Strait. According to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic, traffic in the areas the PLA has declared off-limits was thinner than usual, but some fishing and cargo ships were passing through.
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However, Taiwan’s government said China had added another exercise area off the island’s east coast. The Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice early Thursday barring aircraft from entering an area south of Japan’s Yonaguni Island and east of Taiwan “in the interest of aviation safety.” The Ministry of Transport told ships to avoid the area. Beijing denounced Pelosi’s visit in a barrage of propaganda as a provocation and singled out some politicians from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party as targets for future “punishment.” The Taiwan Affairs Office, the Chinese department responsible for handling Beijing’s day-to-day interaction with the island, said China’s response to Pelosi’s trip was “justified, legal and reasonable.” On state television, a PLA analyst said the drills would “trap elements of Taiwanese independence inside the island.” Pelosi’s visit “was not a move to protect some ‘democracy and freedom,’ but a violation of Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang. Taiwan’s government has protested China’s military maneuvers and said the country is fully prepared to deal with the threat. “All units are operating normally in their regular training areas, closely monitoring the enemy situation in the Taiwan Straits and around the outlying islands, and will take appropriate measures in response,” Taiwan’s defense ministry said. A Taiwan cabinet spokesman said a barrage of cyber attacks since Wednesday briefly brought down the websites of the presidential office and the foreign and defense ministries. But he added that they had caused no permanent damage. The cabinet said a 24-hour cyber security audit of government units is underway. He called on Taiwanese businesses to also strengthen cyber security measures. Additional reporting by Maiqi Ding in Beijing