Taiwan says China military drills appear to simulate attack

Taiwan said Saturday that Chinas military drills appear to simulate an attack on the selfruled island after multiple Chinese warships and aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan StraitTaiwans armed forces issued an alert dispatched air and naval patrols around the island and activated landbased missile systems in response to the situation Taiwans Ministry of National Defense said on TwitterChina launched livefire military drills following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosis trip to Taiwan earlier this week saying that her visit violated the oneChina policy China sees the island as a breakaway province to be annexed by force if necessary and considers visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognising its sovereigntySeparately on Saturday Taiwans army detected four unmanned aerial vehicles flying in the vicinity of the offshore county of Kinmen Taiwans Central News Agency reportedThe four drones which Taiwan believed were Chinese were spotted over waters around the Kinmen island group and the nearby Lieyu Island and Beiding islet according to Taiwans Kinmen Defence CommandTaiwans military fired warning flares in responseOur government amp military are closely monitoring Chinas military exercises amp information warfare operations ready to respond as necessary Taiwans President Tsai Ingwen said in a tweetI call on the international community to support democratic Taiwan amp halt any escalation of the regional security situation she addedKinmen also known as Quemoy is a group of islands administered by Taiwan The islands are located roughly 10 km 62 miles east of the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian provinceThe Chinese military exercises began Thursday and are expected to last until Sunday So far the drills have included missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills in 1995 and 1996 aimed at intimidating Taiwans leaders and votersTaiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defence drills while the US has numerous naval assets in the areaThe Biden administration and Pelosi have said the US remains committed to a iquestoneChinaiquest policy which recognises Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei The administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from visitingChina has also cut off defense talks with the US and imposed sanctions on Pelosi in retaliation for the visitPelosi has been a longtime advocate of human rights in China She along with other lawmakers visited Beijings Tiananmen Square in 1991 to support democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters at the squareThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever