The official Xinhua news agency said on Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockade operations” taking place in six zones off the coast of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory. The military’s Eastern Theater Command also launched new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “accurately.” These included missiles fired over Taiwan in the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major escalation of Chinese threats to annex the island by force. The drills, which Xinhua described as being conducted on an “unprecedented scale,” are China’s response to a visit this week by Pelosi to Taiwan. He is the highest-ranking US politician to visit Taiwan in the past 25 years. China announced unspecified sanctions against Pelosi and her family. Such sanctions are generally mostly symbolic in nature. A statement from China’s foreign ministry said Pelosi ignored China’s serious concerns and determined opposition to her visit. He called Pelosi’s visit provocative and said it undermined China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. China opposes Taiwan having its own engagements with foreign governments. On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered on Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft headed for the exercise area. Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out over the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan Island, a popular scenic spot. China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to bring it under its control has featured prominently in the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda, education system, and fully state-controlled media for more than seven decades since the sides split amid civil war in 1949. Islanders overwhelmingly support maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands that Taiwan be united with the communist-controlled mainland. On Friday morning, China sent warships and warplanes down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s defense ministry said, crossing what for decades was an unofficial security zone between China and Taiwan. Five of the missiles fired by China since the start of military exercises on Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile launches in China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.” Japan’s defense ministry later said it believed the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeast coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises targeting Taiwan represent a “serious problem” that threatens regional peace and security. In Tokyo, where Pelosi is wrapping up her Asia trip, she said China cannot prevent US officials from visiting Taiwan. Speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, Kishida said the missile launches must “stop immediately.” China said it had summoned European diplomats to the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the European Union criticizing threatening Chinese military exercises around Taiwan. The Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li had made “official assurances” about what it called “unintentional interference in China’s internal affairs”. Deng said China will “prevent the country from disintegrating with the utmost determination, using all means and at any cost.” “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is a blatant political manipulation and a flagrant and serious violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Deng said. “In response to US-Taiwan collusion and provocation, China’s counterattack is completely natural.” China’s foreign ministry said the meeting took place on Thursday night, but did not provide information on which countries were involved. Earlier on Thursday, China canceled a meeting of foreign ministers with Japan to protest the G-7’s statement that there was no justification for the drills. Both ministers attended a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia. China had earlier summoned US Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and holding other public events. He traveled to South Korea and then to Japan. Both countries host US military bases and could be drawn into a conflict with Taiwan. The Chinese exercises involve troops from the navy, air force, missile force, strategic support force and logistics force, according to the official Xinhua news agency. They are believed to be the largest to take place near Taiwan geographically, with Beijing announcing six exercise zones surrounding the island. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke at the drills on Thursday saying: “I very much hope that Beijing will not create a crisis or look for a pretext to increase its aggressive military activity. We countries around the world believe that escalation serves no one and could have unintended consequences that serve no one’s interests.” US law requires the government to treat threats against Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “serious concern”. The drills are due to run from Thursday to Sunday and include missile strikes on targets in seas north and south of the island in the wake of the last major Chinese military exercises aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters in 1995 and 1996. Taiwan has put its military on alert and held civil defense drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been canceled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid Chinese drills. In the northern port of Keelung, Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning bath on Thursday, saying he was not worried. “Everybody should want money, not bullets,” Lu said.
