| Translate This News In |
|---|
A day after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a trip to the United States, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command announced that China would begin three days of military drills near Taiwan on Saturday.
China stated in a succinct statement without providing any specifics that it would conduct “combat readiness patrols” and exercises “as planned” in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south, and east of Taiwan.
Wednesday’s meeting between Tsai and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles infuriated Beijing, which regards Taiwan as its own territory.
The government of Taiwan did not reply right away.
After staging war games around Taiwan in August, including real missile launches, following the visit of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, China had warned vague repercussions if the meeting took place.
Given that the McCarthy meeting took place in the United States, Taiwanese officials had anticipated a milder response. Nonetheless, they had also stated that they could not completely rule out the chance that China would conduct additional drills.
