Taiwan says Chinese warplanes and ships conduct attack simulation exercise

Taiwan officials said Chinese aircraft and warships rehearsed an attack on the island on Saturday, part of Beijing’s retaliation for a visit there by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi’s brief visit this week to the self-ruled island that China regards as its territory infuriated Beijing and prompted military drills that are unprecedented in scale around Taiwan and have included ballistic missiles fired over the capital, Taipei.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of taking “irresponsible steps” by halting key communication channels with Washington, and said its actions over Taiwan showed a move from prioritising peaceful resolution towards use of force.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said multiple Chinese ships and planes conducted missions in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, with some crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, in what the Taiwan military described as a simulation attack on the island.

The ministry said later that Taiwan scrambled jets to warn away 20 Chinese aircraft, including 14 that crossed the median line. It also detected 14 Chinese military ships conducting activities around the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said in a statement.

China’s Eastern Theatre Command said it had continued to conduct sea and air joint exercises north, southwest and east of Taiwan. It said its focus was on testing the system’s land strike and sea assault capabilities.

The Chinese exercises — centred on six locations around the island — began on Thursday and are scheduled to last until midday on Sunday.

Chinese warships and aircraft continued to “press” into the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Saturday afternoon, a person familiar with security planning said.

Off Taiwan’s east coast and close to Japanese islands, Chinese warships and drones simulated attacks on US and Japanese warships, the person added.

Taiwan’s army broadcast a warning while deploying air reconnaissance patrol forces and ships to monitor and putting shore-based missiles on stand-by.

The island’s defence ministry published a photo of a Taiwanese sailor on a frigate looking at a nearby Chinese warship off Taiwan’s east coast. “Absolutely not photoshopped!,” the caption said.

It also said it fired flares late on Friday to warn away seven drones flying over its Kinmen islands and unidentified aircraft flying over its Matsu islands. Both island groups are close to China’s coast.

“China’s military drills have unilaterally changed the current situation in the region and seriously damaged the peace in the Taiwan Strait,” the Taiwan defence ministry said.

Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday in the highest-level visit to the island by a US official in decades, despite Chinese warnings.

Shortly after her delegation left Japan on Friday, the final stop of a week-long Asia tour, China announced that it was halting dialogue with the United States in a series of areas.

Beijing says its relations with Taiwan are an internal matter and that it reserves the right to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s claims saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.