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Chinese Military Conducts Live-Fire Exercises in Taiwan Territory After Pelosi Visit, Defense Ministry Says

The exercises amounted to a blockade of its sea and airspace, officials said.

China has begun conducting military exercises inside Taiwanese territory, the Taiwan defense ministry says, in what it described as a blockade of its sea and airspace. The provocative move is seen as a direct response to a 24-hour visit to the contested island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who became the most senior American lawmaker to visit Taiwan in a quarter of a century on Tuesday. Taiwan defense officials on Wednesday said the Chinese live-fire exercises around the island were “endangering international shipping lanes, challenging the international order, undermining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and endangering the area.” Taiwanese authorities have instructed ships to avoid the Chinese drill areas from Thursday till Sunday. During a meeting with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in the capital Taipei on Wednesday, Pelosi said: “America's determination to preserve democracy, here in Taiwan and around the world, remains ironclad.”