In Answer To Tsai’s Trip To The US, China Starts Live Drills Near Taiwan

China practiced “sealing off” Taiwan on Monday as part of its third day of war games around the self-ruled island. At the same time, the US sent a naval destroyer into areas that Beijing claims as its own as a show of force.

China said that its H-6K fighter jets, which were armed with real bullets, hit important targets on Taiwan in multiple sets of simulated attacks. China started the drills after Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, met with the leader of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, last week. China had warned that such a meeting would lead to a very angry response.

The European Union was worried about Chinese military training around Taiwan on Monday. They said that Taiwan’s status shouldn’t be changed by force because any escalation, accident, or use of force there would have huge effects around the world.

Monday’s exercises were set to include live-fire tests off the rocky coast of China’s Fujian province, about 80 kilometers south of the Matsu islands and 190 kilometers from Taipei.

Beijing said on Monday that Taiwan’s freedom and peace across the Taiwan Strait were “incompatible.” It blamed the tensions on Taipei and “foreign forces” that were helping it.

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

China’s military did its last planned day of exercises on Monday, which included air and sea blockade drills around Taiwan. A Chinese aircraft carrier joined combat patrols as Taipei reported another increase in the number of warplanes flying near the island.

China is doing military drills around Taiwan with a lot of military equipment and weapons to scare the self-ruled island.

The three-day show of force started on Saturday, after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s trip to the U.S. angered China.

The US had constantly asked China to be calm, so on Monday, it sent the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius through disputed areas of the South China Sea.

The US Navy said in a statement, “This freedom of navigation operation protected the rights, freedoms, and legal uses of the sea.”

It also said that the ship had been close to the Spratly Islands, which are a group of islands that China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei all claim as their own. It’s about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from Taiwan.

On Monday, a US Navy destroyer went close to one of the most important man-made islands that China controls in the South China Sea. This was part of a mission called “freedom of navigation,” which Beijing said was illegal.

China and other countries claim territory in the vital waterway. The United States goes on these kinds of trips often to dispute China’s and other countries’ claims. The most recent one happened as Beijing held more war games around Taiwan.

In the last few years, China’s military has been sending more planes and ships toward Taiwan almost every day. This number has gone up in response to things that China doesn’t like.

One of the US officials who met with Tsai last week said on Saturday that the US must take China’s threat to Taiwan seriously.

Between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, a total of 70 planes were seen, and according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, half of them crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, which was once an unofficial boundary that both sides allowed. Eight J-16 fighter jets, four J-1 fighters, eight Su-30 fighters, and eight surveillance planes all crossed the median.

China responded to the McCarthy meeting by putting a travel ban and financial sanctions on people who were involved with Tsai’s trip to the US, and by increasing military action over the weekend.