Taiwan is seeing increased activity in and around the self-ruled island as tensions with ChinaFrom cyber attacks to military exercises, Taiwan is seeing increased activity in and around the self-ruled island as tensions with China rise following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China announced a series of sanctions against Taiwan and promised “decisive, forceful and effective” action in response to Pelosi’s trip. It has launched its largest military exercise to date surrounding Taiwan, some of the world’s busiest waterways. China began the four-day military drills at 9:30 IST (04:00 GMT), which will include “training activities including live fire drills,” according to an announcement in state media. It will be held in several zones surrounding Taiwan and will end at noon on Sunday.
Chinese military exercises. AFPGraphics map of Taiwan and its surrounding waters, highlighting areas of Chinese military exercises from August 4-7. At some points, “live fire exercises” will take place within just 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the island’s coast. Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that its website had been cyberattacked and was temporarily offline, days after several of its government websites suffered similar attacks. Taiwan claimed that some of them were launched by China and Russia.
The Group of Seven advanced economies condemned the announced military exercises, saying “there is no justification for using the visit as a pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait”. She stressed that China’s “escalating response risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region.”Two unidentified aircraft, believed to be drones, flew over the area of Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands on Wednesday night, the Defense Ministry said, adding that it fired flares to drive them away. Major General Chang Zone-sung said the Chinese drones arrived in pairs and flew twice into the Kinmen area on Wednesday night, Reuters reported.Beijing’s “friend” Pakistan has expressed its support for the “one China” policy in all weathers. Pakistan’s foreign ministry wrote: “Pakistan is deeply concerned about the evolving situation in the Taiwan Strait, which has serious implications for regional peace and stability.”
