China has launched unprecedented live-fire military drills in six areas that ring Taiwan, a day after a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.
The exercises will include live firing drills to be held on the waters and in the airspace surrounding Taiwan
Taiwan officials have said the drills violate United Nations rules, invade Taiwan's territorial space and are a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation. On Wednesday night, just hours after Ms Pelosi left for South Korea, unidentified aircraft, probably drones, flew above the area of Taiwan's outlying Kinmen islands, near the mainland coast, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said.Major General Chang Zone-sung of the army's Kinmen Defence Command told Reuters the drones came in a pair and flew into the Kinmen area twice on Wednesday night, around 9pm and 10pm local time.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Ms Pelosi's visit to Taiwan a "manic, irresponsible and highly irrational" act, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The top eight trending items on China's Twitter-like Weibo service were related to Taiwan, with most expressing support for the drills.
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