China-Taiwan conflict highlights: Taiwan condemns China for undermining 'peace and stability' after military drills

Taiwan's foreign ministry condemned China on Monday for undermining "peace and stability" in the region after Beijing ended three days of war games around the self-ruled island, AFP reported. Read more

After China completed three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan said,"The theater’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts." (AP)

China's military said it had "successfully completed" exercises around Taiwan, following three days of war games circling the self-ruled island which Beijing claims as its own territory, AFP reported. Read more

The Kremlin said on Monday that China had every right to respond to what it called "provocations" and carry out military exercises around Taiwan, reported AFP

China's drills on Saturday began after warning of a furious response if Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week in the United States. The meeting went ahead in California on April 5, when Tsai was on her way back to Taipei from a trip to two of her island's Latin America allies.

The European Union on Monday expressed concern over Chinese military drills around Taiwan, saying the island's status should not be changed by force as any escalation, accident or use of force there would have huge global implications, Reuters reported.

The exercises on Monday were set to include live-fire drills off the rocky coast of China's Fujian province, about 80 kilometres south of the Matsu islands and 190 kilometres from Taipei, reported AFP.

Beijing warned Monday that Taiwan independence and cross-strait peace were "mutually exclusive", blaming Taipei and unnamed "foreign forces" supporting it for the tensions.

"If we want to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait we must firmly oppose any form of Taiwan independence separatism," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned.

China's military carried out aerial and naval blockade drills around Taiwan on Monday, its last scheduled day of exercises, with a Chinese aircraft carrier joining in combat patrols as Taipei reported another surge of warplanes near the island, Reuters reported.

China is brandishing a wide array of military equipment and weapons as it conducts drills around Taiwan intended to intimidate the self-ruled island, AFP reported.

The three-day show of force, which began on Saturday, comes after a visit by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States sparked China's ire.

China warns Taiwan independence and peace 'mutually exclusive', reports AFP.

China's vice-foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu will visit Australia and Fiji this week, the Chinese foreign Ministry said on Monday, reports Reuters.

The United States, which had repeatedly called for China to show restraint, on Monday sent the USS Milius guided-missile destroyer through contested parts of the South China Sea.

"This freedom of navigation operation upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea," the US Navy said in a statement.

It added that the vessel had passed near the Spratly Islands -- an archipelago claimed by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. It is about 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from Taiwan.

A US Navy destroyer sailed near one of the most important man-made and Chinese controlled islands in the South China Sea on Monday, in a freedom of navigation mission that Beijing denounced as illegal.

While the United States frequently makes such voyages to challenge China and other states' territorial claims in the strategic waterway, the latest one took place as Beijing staged more war games around Taiwan.

China’s military harassment of Taiwan has intensified in recent years with planes or ships sent toward the island on a near-daily basis, with the numbers rising in reaction to sensitive activities.

One of the US representatives who attended the meeting with Tsai last week said Saturday the US must take seriously the threat China posed to Taiwan. 

Between 6 am Sunday and 6 am Monday, a total of 70 planes were detected and half crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense. Among the planes that crossed the median were 8 J-16 fighter jets, 4 J-1 fighters, 8 Su-30 fighters and reconnaissance planes.

China responded to the McCarthy meeting by imposing a travel ban and financial sanctions against those associated with Tsai’s US trip and with increased military activity through the weekend.

China's latest military actions follow President Tsai Ing-wen’s delicate diplomatic mission to shore up Taiwan's dwindling alliances in Central America and boost its US support, a trip capped with a sensitive meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. A US congressional delegation also met with Tsai over the weekend in Taiwan after she returned.

The Chinese military earlier had announced three-day “combat readiness patrols” which it called Joint Sword, as a warning to Taiwan, a self-ruled island which China claims as its own. Beijing says contact between foreign officials and the island's democratic government encourages Taiwanese who want formal independence, a step China’s ruling Communist Party says would lead to war.

In August last year, China deployed warships, missiles and fighter jets around Taiwan in its largest show of force in years following a trip to the island by McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi.

China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949. China views democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to take it one day.

The United States has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would defend Taiwan militarily. But for decades it has sold weapons to Taipei to help ensure its self-defence, and offered political support.

After two days of exercises that included simulating targeted strikes on Taiwan and encirclement of the island, the Chinese military said the wargames also included "sealing" it off.

Senior Japanese and Chinese officials met on Monday to discuss maritime concerns in disputed waters in the East China Sea as Beijing conducted wargames around Taiwan, Reuters reported.

China's military carried out aerial and naval blockade drills around Taiwan on Monday, its last scheduled day of exercises, with a Chinese aircraft carrier joining in combat patrols as Taipei reported another surge of warplanes near the island, Reuters reported.

The US Navy said its guided-missile destroyer the USS Milius sailed through waters claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea in a "freedom of navigation" operation on Monday, AFP reported.