China announces fresh military drills around Taiwan as another US delegation lands in Taipei, meets President Tsai Ing-wen

The five-member delegation is led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is also slated to meet with other government and private sector representatives. While the US continues to insist that it does not support independence for Taiwan, China regards formal contacts between US politicians and the island's government as support for its independence from Beijing.
​Representational image

Representational image

Photo : AP
Taipei: Less than two weeks after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit kicked off a row, yet another delegation has chosen to visit the self-ruled island. On Monday, even as the US Congress members met with President Tsai Ing-wen, China announced fresh military drills around the territory.
The five-member delegation is led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is also slated to meet with other government and private sector representatives. While the US continues to insist that it does not support independence for Taiwan, China regards formal contacts between US politicians and the island's government as support for its independence from Beijing.
The bipartisan trip sparked a caustic response from Beijing, which said it had carried out "combat readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island" on Monday. Beijing also called on Washington to "stop going further down the wrong path of hollowing out and distorting the one-China principle, so as not to cause further damage to China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait".
"China will take firm and forceful measures to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing.
Additional joint drills in the seas and skies surrounding Taiwan were announced by the People's Liberation Army, mere days after a series of threatening military exercises by China, including the firing of missiles over the island and into the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's government had accused Beijing of using Pelosi's visit as an excuse to kickstart drills that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion.
Last week, Taiwan had also conducted scheduled live-fire artillery exercises amid China's ongoing military manoeuvres around the island. The live ammunition artillery exercise known as the Tien Lei drill was announced in late July, before the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan last week drew Beijing's ire
China's Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but says it will use force if necessary to take the island and bristles at any perceived treatment of it as a sovereign nation state.
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