A day after the scheduled conclusion of its largest-ever exercises in retaliation for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last week, China’s military announced new military drills in the seas and airspace surrounding Taiwan on Monday.
China’s Eastern Theatre Command announced that it would hold joint exercises with a focus on anti-submarine and sea assault operations, assuaging some security analysts’ and diplomats’ fears that Beijing would keep up the pressure on Taiwan’s defences.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry denounced the action and claimed China, which claims the island as its own, was purposely fomenting unrest. Beijing was commanded to halt all military operations and ‘pull back from the edge.’
Taiwan ‘will not be afraid nor back down and more firmly defend its sovereignty, national security, and free and democratic way of life in the face of military intimidation created by China,’ the ministry said in a statement.
In his first public remarks on Taiwan since Pelosi’s visit, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that he was more concerned about China’s behaviour in the area than he was about Taiwan.
Biden told reporters in Delaware, ‘I’m concerned that they are moving as much as they are. However, I don’t believe they will go beyond what they have already done.’
China was furious at Pelosi’s visit and responded by testing ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time and cutting off some lines of communication with the United States.
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