“This morning, we continued to detect multiple waves of Chinese military aircraft, naval vessels and drones operating in the Taiwan Strait area and conducting joint sea and air exercises, simulating an attack on Taiwan and strikes on our naval vessels,” the statement said. Ministry of Defense of Taiwan. he said. The drills, which Beijing has described as punishment for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, have dramatically escalated tensions across the Taiwan Strait and between China and the US. The four-day maneuvers were unprecedented in scale and proximity to Taiwan, and also involved the People’s Liberation Army practicing for the first time operations that would involve an attempted invasion of the actual airspace and waters where such an attack would be launched. At 12:30 p.m., half an hour after all but one of China’s navigation warnings for the drills had ended, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command said it was “continuing the joint exercises as planned.” The navigation warning for the last area closed to maneuvers, in the airspace and waters east of Taiwan, is set to expire at 2 a.m. Monday. Taiwan’s defense officials said the country’s navy was patrolling its side of the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial high point that China has respected in the past but has repeatedly invaded during exercises. The officials added that PLA ships had not stepped up provocations or attempted more dangerous maneuvers on Sunday. On Saturday, 14 PLA aircraft flew along the median line, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry, after 30 on Friday and 12 on Thursday. In another first, the PLA’s Rocket Force fired missiles that crossed the sky over Taiwan on Thursday, five of which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The maneuvers had “created the conditions for the early realization of national unification and built a favorable strategic posture,” Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defense University of China, told state television on Sunday. He added that there had been many “weather breakthroughs”, including the prevention of “Taiwan independence forces”. The PLA had also “completely obliterated the middle line of the Taiwan Strait.” Air and sea traffic to and from Taiwan, which had been diverted by China’s live-fire drills, began to return to normal on Sunday afternoon, allaying fears about the impact on global supply chains of the widespread transport disruption . The country’s civil aviation and port authorities said flights and ships could gradually resume regular services, with Taipei continuing to divert traffic only around the seventh exercise area, off eastern Taiwan, until 10 a.m. Monday morning. Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that flights between Taiwan’s main international airport and Japan had resumed direct services as usual, after major detours for more than three days. China has accompanied its air, naval, missile, long-range artillery and cyber operations with muscular propaganda and information warfare. Over the weekend, the PLA and state media released photos and videos of Taiwan’s coastline and central mountain range as seen from the cockpit of a Chinese fighter jet, with comments from a pilot expressing pride at approaching “the island of the motherland’s treasures”. The Eastern Theater Command also released footage from the east coast of Taiwan. Taipei has traditionally viewed the area as a safe haven for its air and naval assets in the event of a Chinese attack, but it has been highlighted as a vulnerable side by missile tests and a dramatic increase in Chinese naval activity in recent months. “Sailing these waters . . . we feel a heavy responsibility and a glorious mission,” Li Ning, a political commissar on a Chinese frigate, said in a video broadcast by state CCTV, which showed the chimney of the Hoping power station on Taiwan’s east coast, a critical pillar of country. power supply. “One word, and we will take on the heavy burden without regard for our lives,” Li Ning added. Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, warned that China’s actions threaten the decades-old status quo in the Taiwan Strait. “As [secretary of state Antony Blinken] said, “There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalating military response.” The world should hold Beijing accountable for keeping the peace,” Burns tweeted. The statement followed a series of calls for calm, including from the G7.

Taiwan began to press harder over the weekend. It said on Sunday that units operating domestic Hsiung Feng II anti-ship missiles had been put on high alert and were monitoring Chinese warships. He added that he was sharing information on PLA movements detected by the Leshan early warning radar station, one of the largest in the world, with friendly governments. Taiwanese diplomats in the US, Japan and Europe explained the country’s position in media interviews over the weekend and appealed for international support. “This is another battleground between Taiwan and China,” said Wang Ting-yu, a lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, referring to infighting over Chinese military moves. With its military posture, China had transformed itself into an “international agitator”. “There is no benefit for China in this,” he added.