China conducts fresh drills around Taiwan as US lawmakers visit

TAIPEI: China said Monday it had organised fresh military drills around Taiwan, as a delegation of visiting United States lawmakers were set to meet the island’s leader just weeks after a similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heightened fears of conflict.

The unannounced two-day trip came after Beijing sent warships, missiles and jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China’s leaders claim and have vowed to one day seize.

The five-member congressional delegation — led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts — was due to hold a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday followed by a banquet at the foreign ministry.

Their visit will focus on trade, regional security and climate change, Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei said.

The bipartisan trip sparked a caustic response from Beijing, which said it had Monday carried out “combat readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan island”.

“This is a solemn deterrent against the US and Taiwan for continuing to play political tricks and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement, promising to “resolutely defend national sovereignty”.

Taiwan’s government has accused Beijing of using Pelosi’s visit as an excuse to kickstart drills that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion.

China’s communist party has never ruled Taiwan but says it will use force if necessary to take the island.

That decades-old threat was reiterated in a white paper published last week when China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said it would “not renounce the use of force” against its neighbour and reserved “the option of taking all necessary measures”.

It added, however: “We will only be forced to take drastic measures to respond to the provocation of separatist elements or external forces should they ever cross our red lines.”

Taipei has remained defiant throughout the standoff with Beijing, with a ruling party lawmaker telling AFP this week’s congressional visit proved the island had not been cowed by China’s threats.

Pelosi has stood by her visit but President Joe Biden said the US military was opposed to the trip by his fellow Democrat who is second in line to the presidency after the vice president.