China continues military exercises around Taiwan

China on Monday conducted fresh military drills around Taiwan, Beijing said, defying calls to end its biggest-ever drills around the democratic island after a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Beijing has fumed over the trip of Pelosi – the most senior US elected official to visit Taiwan in decades – which ripped up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, particularly on climate change and defense.

It has also deployed warplanes, warships and ballistic missiles in what analysts have described as drills for a blockade and eventual invasion of the self-governing island that China claims as its territory.

Those drills were expected to end on Sunday, but neither Beijing nor Taipei confirmed their conclusion, although Taiwan’s transport ministry said it had seen some evidence pointing to at least a partial pullback.

China then said Monday they were proceeding, reporting that “the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater continued to conduct practical joint exercises and training in the sea and air space around the island of Taiwan.”

The exercises, according to the Chinese military’s Eastern Command, “focused on organizing joint anti-submarine and naval attack operations.”

Beijing will also hold fire drills in parts of the South China Sea and Yellow Sea on Monday.

Taiwan has remained defiant despite Beijing’s days-long drills and is scheduled to begin its own live-fire drills on Tuesday.

Su Tseng-chang, Taiwan’s premier, said China is using “barbaric military measures” to disrupt peace in the Taiwan Strait.

“We urge the Chinese government not to go around wielding its military might, showing its muscles everywhere and endangering peace in the region,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Taipei’s foreign ministry said the drills threaten “the region and even the world.”

To show how close it has come to Taiwan’s coast, the Chinese military released video of an Air Force pilot filming the island’s coast and mountains from his cockpit.

The Eastern Command also shared a photo it said showed a warship on patrol with Taiwan’s coastline in the background.

Ballistic missiles were also fired over Taiwan’s capital during exercises over the past week, according to Chinese state media.

The scale and intensity of the Chinese exercises — as well as Beijing’s withdrawal from key talks on climate and defense — have sparked outrage in the United States and other democracies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was “determined to act responsibly” to avoid a larger global crisis.

And experts say the drills have revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military capable of conducting a grueling blockade of the island and preventing US forces from coming to his aid.

“In some areas, the PLA could even surpass US capabilities,” Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and a former US Navy officer, told AFP, referring to China’s military by its official name.

“If the battle is confined to the area immediately around Taiwan, today’s Chinese navy is a dangerous opponent – and if for some reason the Americans and Japanese don’t intervene, it will be difficult for Taiwan.”