TAIPE
\nChinese and Taiwanese warships played high-seas \u201ccat and mouse\u201d on Sunday ahead of the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to visit to TAiwan by the US house speaker.
\nNancy Pelosi\u2019s visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over the island\u2019s capital for the first time and the cutting of communication links with the United States.
\nSome 10 warships each from China and Taiwan sailed at close quarters in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese vessels crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
\nThe island\u2019s defence ministry said in a release multiple Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones were simulating attacks on the island and its navy. It said it had sent aircraft and ships to react \u201cappropriately\u201d.
\nAs Chinese forces \u201cpressed\u201d the line, as they did on Saturday, the Taiwan side stayed close to monitor and, where possible, deny the Chinese the ability to cross, the person said.
\n\u201cThe two sides are showing restraint, the person said, describing the manoeuvres as high seas \u201ccat and mouse\u201d.
\n\u201cOne side tries to cross, and the other stands in the way and forces them to a more disadvantaged position and eventually returns to the other side.\u201d
\nTaiwan said its shore-based anti-ship missiles and its Patriot surface -to-air-missiles were on stand-by.
\nThe Chinese exercises, , centred on six locations around the island that China claims as its own, began on Thursday and are scheduled to last until midday on Sunday, the official Xinhua News agency reported last week.
\nChina\u2019s military said on Saturday the sea and air joint exercises, north, and southwest and east of Taiwan, had a focus on land-strike and sea-assault capabilities.
\nThe United States called the exercises an escalation.
\n\u201cThese activities are a significant escalation in China\u2019s efforts to change the status quo. They are provocative, irresponsible and raise the risk of miscalculation,\u201d a White House spokesperson said.
\n\u201cThey are also at odds with our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is what the world expects.\u201d
\nChina says its relations with Taiwan are an internal matter and it reserves the right to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China\u2019s claims saying only Taiwan\u2019s people can decide their future.
\nChina has also warned the United States not to \u201cact rashly\u201d and create a greater crisis. Referring to the response to Pelosi\u2019s visit, the Communist Party\u2019s People\u2019s Daily newspaper said China had adopted \u201ceffective measures that fully demonstrates that China is fully determined and capable of safeguarding national unity and safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity\u201d.
\nTaiwan\u2019s Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters that China had \u201carrogantly\u201d used military action to disrupt peace and he called on Beijing not to not flex its military muscle.
\nTaiwan\u2019s defence ministry said on Saturday its forces scrambled jets to warn away 20 Chinese aircraft, including 14 that crossed the median line. It also detected 14 Chinese ships conducting activity around the Taiwan Strait.
\nThe ministry released a photograph showing Taiwanese sailors closely watching a nearby Chinese vessel.
\nTaiwan\u2019s forces on Friday fired flares to warn away drones flying over its Kinmen islands and unidentified aircraft flying over its Matsu islands. Both island groups are close to China\u2019s coast.
\nAs part of its response to Pelosi\u2019s visit, China has halted communication through various channels with the United States including between military theatre commands and on climate change.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of taking \u201cirresponsible\u201d steps and moving away from prioritising peaceful resolution towards the use of force.
\nPelosi, a long-time China critic and a political ally of US President Joe Biden, arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday on the highest-level visit to the island by an American official in decades, despite Chinese warnings. She said her visit showed unwavering US commitment to supporting Taiwan\u2019s democracy.
\n\u201cThe world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,\u201d she said. She also stressed that her trip was \u201cnot about changing the status quo in Taiwan or the region\u201d.
\nTaiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong\u2019s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s Kuomintang nationalists in a civil war, prompting their retreat to the island.
\nSpeaking during a visit to the Philippines, Blinken said the United States had been hearing concern from allies about what he called China\u2019s dangerous and destabilising actions but Washington sought to avoid escalating the situation.
\nHe said China\u2019s cessation of bilateral dialogue in eight key areas were moves that would punish the world.
\nChina\u2019s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Friday accused Blinken of spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAIPE Chinese and Taiwanese warships played high-seas \u201ccat and mouse\u201d on Sunday ahead of the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to visit to TAiwan by the US house speaker. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[631,10017],"class_list":{"0":"post-276215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-chinese","9":"tag-taiwanese"},"yoast_head":"\n