- China launches four ballistic missiles into the waters surrounding Taiwan.
- US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island on Wednesday.
- China claims to have conducted live-fire drills in six places around Taiwan.
China has launched four ballistic missiles into the waters surrounding Taiwan in retaliation to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island.
According to Chinese official media, the live-fire drills in six places around Taiwan began at noon local time (04:00 GMT) on Thursday and will last until the same time on Sunday.
Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement carried by state media that rocket troops on the mainland launched several types of missiles into designated waters off Taiwan’s eastern shore.
The missiles carried conventional warheads and all of them struck their targets precisely, he claimed, adding that the drills were designed to test the weapons’ precision and capacity to deny an opponent access to or control of an area.
The launches were confirmed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, who identified them as Dongfeng-class ballistic missiles. The weapons were fired into waters northeast and southwest of Taiwan at about 1:56pm local time (05:56 GMT), and the exercises were criticised as “irrational measures that jeopardise regional peace.”
The last time China fired missiles into Taiwanese waters was in 1996, in the run-up to President Lee Teng-re-election hui’s after a visit to the US the year before. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out using force to seize control of the island.
Pelosi’s travel to Taiwan on Wednesday was the first by a sitting House Speaker, the third most powerful politician in the United States, in 25 years.
While the United States maintains official diplomatic relations with China, it maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan and is required by law to give the island’s 23 million inhabitants with the means to defend itself.
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