official to visit Taiwan in 25 years.īeijing considers the self-ruling, democratic island a breakaway province, to be united with the mainland by force if necessary, and objects strongly to high-level U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday and met top Taiwanese officials and rights groups on Wednesday. Credit: AFPĬhina has been conducting military drills in the seas around Taiwan since early this week in an angry response to a stopover by U.S. Matsu, Wuqiu, Dongyin and some other outlying islands have been put on heightened alert after the PLA fired long-range rockets in the surrounding areas, the ministry added.īefore the launch, the PLA threatened to fire missiles over Taiwan and enter the island’s territorial waters for the first time, in a scenario that analysts describe as 'The Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis.' Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China's closest point from Taiwan, on August 4, 2022, ahead of massive military drills off Taiwan. The Chinese military “launched 11 Dongfeng ballistic missiles into the northern, southern and eastern surrounding waters of Taiwan this afternoon from 13:56 hours to 16:00 hours,” the ministry said without specifying the range. Unprecedented Chinese live-fire maritime drills got underway on Thursday with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launching ballistic missiles into the waters around Taiwan, the Taiwanese defense ministry said.

Chinese fire drill meaning