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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Joanna Walters (now); Martin Belam and Samantha Lock (earlier)

Taiwan says China used 66 planes and 14 warships in Sunday’s drills – as it happened

Taiwan China White House United States Nancy Pelosi PLA Beijing Taiwan Strait Missile People Liberation Army
A handout photo from Taiwan's military news service showing service personnel working at an undisclosed location.
A handout photo from Taiwan's military news service showing service personnel working at an undisclosed location. Photograph: Taiwan military news service

We are pausing our live coverage of the Taiwan crisis. Here is our full report on the latest developments:

Summary

Hello to our live blog readers watching news developments involving China and Taiwan, following military exercises conducted by Beijing around the island democracy in the days since the visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi early last week.

It’s 6am local time in Taipei on Monday morning. Here’s where things stand:

  • Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US, de facto ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao, compared China to a bully but asserted that her island democracy intended “to resolve our political differences through dialogue.”
  • Joe Biden has been pretty quiet about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week but, behind the scenes, the US president’s team has intervened to delay progress on some hawkish legislation introduced in the US Senate that undermines America’s “strategic ambiguity” on the one-China policy.
  • The defence ministry of Taiwan said it had detected 66 Chinese air force planes and 14 Chinese warships conducting activities in and around the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.
  • China again conducted military drills and exercises around Taiwan on Sunday. The four-day show of military strength had been a response to US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the disputed territory earlier in the week.
  • Taiwan’s defence ministry earlier said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island.
  • China’s navigational warnings and NOTAMs for military exercises around Taiwan have expired, excluding in one area, and China didn’t extend those exercises as some had previously thought they might.
  • Taiwan’s transport ministry said flights through its airspace had gradually resumed on Sunday about noon as most notifications for Chinese military drills near the island were “no longer in effect”.
  • Taiwan’s official Central News Agency has reported that Taiwan’s army will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday, in response to the Chinese exercises.
  • The Chinese military will from now on conduct “regular” drills on the eastern side of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator.
  • Taiwan’s mainland affairs council (MAC) – which sets policy towards the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – has called on Beijing authorities to “exercise restraint and immediately stop all of its belligerent behaviours”. The council accused the PRC of continuing with its military exercises around Taiwan “as part of a simulation for an attack and a blockade in order to intimidate Taiwan and neighbouring countries”.
  • Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang said China has “arrogantly” used military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability. Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Sunday, Su also called on Beijing to not flex its military muscles, and condemned “foreign enemies” he said were attempting to sap the morale of the Taiwanese people through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
  • A White House spokesperson has said China is trying to “change the status quo” through its military drills around Taiwan.
  • Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US has said the self-governing island has been “bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world” for too long and maintained its people would not surrender their freedom.
  • Beijing has announced it will hold further military exercises near the southern part of the Yellow Sea and Bohai, near South Korea. The exercises are expected to start on Monday 8 August and last until 8 September.
  • US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reassured the Philippines that the US would come to its defence if attacked in the South China Sea.

"We intend to resolve our political differences through dialogue" - Taiwanese rep

Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US, the de facto ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao, compared China to a bully in an interview aired on Sunday.

Of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week, Hsiao told CBS Face the Nation:

The visit has been welcomed by the Taiwanese people. Sometimes it’s hard for other countries from afar to fully understand the feelings and perspectives of the Taiwanese people and that is, for too long, you know, we have been bullied, isolated and suppressed and banned from international organizations, even though we have built a modern, open, prosperous democracy.

And so when friends come from afar and wish to lend their support to Taiwan, we generally take that with gratitude.

CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Hsiao if she was concerned that “the West won’t stand by Taiwan the way it has stood by Ukraine?”. Noting that China “is financially so powerful it would be hard for the West to cut it off.”

Hsiao said:

I think that was one of the messages that Speaker Pelosi was trying to convey. And that is, you know, despite all challenges, we have friends in the international community who will stand with us.

Hsiao said she thought Beijing had been planning the extensive military exercises in which it has menaced Taiwan on an unprecedented scale for the past four days for a good deal of time before Pelosi visited.

She said:

My President has called on the Chinese government to exercise restraint. We intend to resolve our political differences through dialogue. And that is the only way that will preserve the stability of the region.

And it is the only way that will protect the interests of not only Taiwan and not only China, but the whole world.

From US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s tweets since she left Taiwan last week you wouldn’t think she’d even created a ripple in a thimble.

Pelosi is celebrating the US Senate passing the Inflation Reduction Act this afternoon and pledging to bring the House back into session asap with every prospect of it passing there and then heading to Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

The Speaker has also been tweeting about US voting rights, the strong July jobs numbers, the microchips legislation, women’s rights, gun violence and birthday wishes to Barack Obama. Nothing on Taiwan since her whirlwind visit.

Updated

The People’s Republic of China’s spending on its military has risen by more than 700% since it last conducted major live-fire armed forces exercises close to Taiwan in 1996, one US expert points out.

In the 26 years since, China has grown very much more prosperous and industrially modern but, in the last 10 years, more autocratic under the regime of Xi Jinping, making the large-scale military manoeuvres that just wound down after four days especially daunting.

Stanford University political scientist Oriana Skylar Mastro told CNN that it appeared, to outside observers at least, that China had probably accomplished what it set out to do, in that it successfully demonstrated an ability to menace Taiwan militarily on “an unprecedented scale”.

With multiple types of aircraft buzzing the island democracy, naval ships including destroyers, supply vessels and aircraft carriers gliding about in the Taiwan Strait, submarines chugging around underwater and missiles whizzing overhead, all of them “operating together in close proximity” in the direction of Taiwan was “really significant,” she said.

In the 1995-1996 events, China conducted four rounds of live-fire exercises in the area but “never fired more than six missiles” and none flew across Taiwan, as happened this time.

“We will probably see additional rounds of military exercises in the future without even an announcement,” she said, adding that the latest exercise was designed “to show that China can take Taiwan whenever it feels ready to do so,” Mastro told CNN.

The Crisis Group’s Amanda Hsiao summarises the hardware and territorial strategy:

Updated

“China has dramatically raised the military threat to Taiwan, we [the US] would be derelict if we didn’t raise our capacity to deal with it.”

So said Richard Haass, the president of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, a little earlier today, talking to CNN.

He said he does not believe the US should change its fundamental policy towards the status of China and Taiwan.

“I think we should continue to tell China that we do not support Taiwanese independence,” Haass told Fareed Zakaria’s GPS show.

That does not diverge from the idea of boosting support for Taiwan.

He tweeted the New York Times editorial article that we blogged about earlier.

Updated

Joe Biden has been pretty quiet about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week in the days since it happened but, behind the scenes, has kicked an important legislative can down the road.

“The Biden administration still has congressional temperatures to cool when it comes to US policy toward the self-governing island,” Politico writes.

One way to do that is to buy some time on a hawkish bipartisan bill introduced in the US Senate, the Taiwan Policy Act, that aims to take the initiative by aggressively boosting US support for Taiwan, including rewriting some long-held basics of the US-Taiwan relationship.

The Taiwan Policy Act was introduced in June by New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez and South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham.

Among several measures it would, most eye-catchingly, provide a new chunk of $4.5bn in security assistance to Taiwan and designate the island democracy – which operates independently but is claimed by the People’s Republic of China as part of its single Chinese nation governed by Beijing – and have the US designate Taiwan as “a major non-Nato ally”.

That could be seen to undermine (rip up?) America’s delicate “strategic ambiguity” on the status of the two societies, where it supports the notion of “one China” by diplomatically acknowledging there is only one Chinese government and, in parallel, won’t countenance Beijing taking Taipei by force and would assist Taiwan’s self-defence.

Politico notes that the Taiwan Policy Act “represents the most dramatic shakeup of the US-Taiwan relationship since the Taiwan Relations Act, which has guided US policy on the subject since 1979”.

An important step to advance the legislation in the Senate last Wednesday was postponed and the White House is now getting involved, apparently to try to make changes to the legislation in the coming weeks. The Politico report is here.

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

An editorial in the New York Times today begs the US and China to calm things down in the brouhaha over Taiwan, arguing that “it is in everyone’s interest for the two most powerful nations on Earth to find ways of easing these tensions.”

The article by the US paper’s editorial board asserts that House speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s, visit to Taipei last week, infuriating the Beijing government, “was ill-timed.”

A billboard in Taipei last week.
A billboard in Taipei last week. Photograph: Chiang Ying-ying/AP

The New York Times warns the US that “treating China as a hostile power is a counterproductive oversimplification” of geopolitics and notes that “the uncomfortable reality is that the US and China need each other” as evidenced by robust trade that has continued between the two nations even as other communications, about military cooperation and action on the climate crisis, have been suspended by China.

And the paper says adds that the US “needs to move past the old idea that economic engagement would gradually transform Chinese politics and society,” suggesting that “instead of trying to change China, the United States should focus on building stronger ties with China’s neighbors” because behaving unilaterally makes America less effective on the regional and world stages.

You can read the whole article here (NB: NYT has a paywall.)

Updated

Although China’s military exercises around Taiwan have wound down and appear to have ended, there is no official confirmation that ‘this is it’, it should be noted for the record.

Neither Beijing nor Taipei, the capitals of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan respectively, have confirmed the conclusion of the event.

For information about another country’s military exercises we suggest you please ask the country conducting them to explain,” a Taiwan defence ministry official told reporters in a text message, Agence France-Presse reports.

China’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the expected conclusion of the drills on Sunday, AFP further notes, as the clock ticks towards midnight and the dawning of Monday local time in Taiwan.

Pro-independence flags in Taipei.
Pro-independence flags in Taipei. Photograph: Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

China has wrapped up its unprecedented four days of drills that showcased Beijing’s growing military prowess and determination to challenge what it called “any attempt to separate Taiwan from China”, after the controversial visit to the island democracy last week by the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

Over the course of the drills, Beijing responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, for the first time. It also halted some ties with the US, including cancelling a number of efforts to keep communication channels open between military commanders and suspending bilateral collaborations on the climate crisis.

Chinese and Taiwanese warships shadowed each other on Sunday in the hours before the scheduled end of the military exercises. The People’s Liberation Army said its drills focused on testing China’s long-range air and ground strikes.

Taiwan responded to Beijing with its own show of defiance. Its official news outlet, Central News Agency, reported that its army would conduct live-fire artillery drills in the southern Pingtung county on Tuesday and Thursday. In the last few days, Taipei’s diplomats have also condemned Beijing’s actions in front of international media.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 66 Chinese air force planes and 14 Chinese warships conducting activities in and around the Taiwan strait on Sunday.

Read more of Vincent Ni’s report: China winds down days of military drills around Taiwan after Pelosi visit

  • That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. I am handing you over to my colleague Joanna Walters in the US.

The two sides are engaged in a dispute over whether the Chinese destroyer Nanjing came within 12km of Taiwan.

Taiwan’s military information service has just posted to social media to deny that this happened, saying:

Stories from People’s Republic of China media claim that People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) destroyer Nanjing was found 11.78 km away from Hoping Power Plant in Hualien. The Republic of China (Taiwan) navy denounces such disinformation. No PLAN vessel has entered our territorial waters since 4 August when the People’s Liberation Army drill started.

Reuters is carrying some further quotes from China’s foreign minister Wang Yi.

It quotes him saying that China’s action on Taiwan are just, appropriate and legal. He said the actions were aimed at safeguarding China’s sacred sovereignty, and he reiterated that Taiwan is not part of the territory of the US, but that it is China’s territory.

He made the comments after arriving in Bangladesh for a visit.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, centre left, and his Bangladeshi counterpart A K Abdul Momen applaud as both countries sign agreements in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, centre left, and his Bangladeshi counterpart A K Abdul Momen applaud as both countries sign agreements in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP

Updated

Taiwan’s official military news service has posted to social media a message in praise of the response of Taiwanese service personnel. It said:

The Naval Command stated that naval officers and soldiers responded to challenges with a calm and calm attitude, and used various types of equipment such as shore-based missiles to ensure peace and stability in the region and safeguard the safety of the Republic of China (Taiwan) people.

Taiwan says China used 66 planes and 14 warships in Sunday's drills

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 66 Chinese air force planes and 14 Chinese warships conducting activities in and around the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Thursday’s drills involved the live firing of 11 missiles. On Friday, 68 Chinese planes were reported making approaches, with 49 entering what Taiwan’s considers it air defence identification zone.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said 14 ships and 20 planes were active on Saturday, with 14 crossing the “median line” which has acted as an unofficial delimiter of Taiwan’s de facto territory.

Taylor Fravel, a professor and director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has told the Wall Street Journal that “China now clearly has the confidence and the capability to conduct exercises close to Taiwan itself, from all directions.”

“The exercises demonstrate that China may now be able to carry out some kinds of operations that it may have been unable to do in the past, such as carrying out an actual blockade of Taiwan’s ports, perhaps closing the Taiwan Strait,” Fravel added, suggesting that Beijing would be likely to try and carry out similar exercises again.

Summary of the day so far …

It is 8.30pm in Taiwan. Here is a summary of the day’s events so far.

  • China again conducted military drills and exercises around Taiwan on Sunday. The four day show of military strength had been a response to US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the disputed territory earlier in the week.
  • Taiwan’s defence ministry earlier said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island.
  • China’s navigational warnings and NOTAMs for military exercises around Taiwan have expired, excluding in one area, and China didn’t extend those exercises as some had previously thought they might.
  • Taiwan’s transport ministry said flights through its airspace had gradually resumed on Sunday about noon as most notifications for Chinese military drills near the island were “no longer in effect”.
  • Taiwan’s official Central News Agency has reported that Taiwan’s army will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday, in response to the Chinese exercises.
  • The Chinese military will from now on conduct “regular” drills on the eastern side of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator.
  • Taiwan’s mainland affairs council (MAC) – which sets policy towards the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – has called on Beijing authorities to “exercise restraint and immediately stop all of its belligerent behaviours”. The council accused the PRC of continuing with its military exercises around Taiwan “as part of a simulation for an attack and a blockade in order to intimidate Taiwan and neighbouring countries”.
  • Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang said China has “arrogantly” used military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability. Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Sunday, Su also called on Beijing to not flex its military muscles, and condemned “foreign enemies” he said were attempting to sap the morale of the Taiwanese people through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
  • A White House spokesperson has said China is trying to “change the status quo” through its military drills around Taiwan.
  • Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US has said the self-governing island has been “bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world” for too long and maintained its people would not surrender their freedom.
  • Beijing has announced it will hold further military exercises near the southern part of the Yellow Sea and Bohai, near South Korea. The exercises are expected to start on Monday 8 August and last until 8 September.
  • US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reassured the Philippines that the US would come to its defence if attacked in the South China Sea.

George Yin and S Philip Hsu have written an opinion piece for the Observer today, in which they argue that by taunting the US “paper tiger”, China risks provoking a backlash over Taiwan:

Nancy Pelosi’s visit was merely a trigger. The crisis reflects deeper issues in Sino-US relations. If they are not addressed, we expect more instability in the Taiwan Strait and the evolution of great power competition into great power conflict.

In the past few years, policymakers, opinion leaders and members of the public in China have increasingly compared America to a “paper tiger”. On the one hand, the US is believed to be pernicious. Jealously guarding its own hegemony, it does not and cannot accept China’s rise, they say; since the Trump administration, Washington has started to systematically hollow out the “one China principle” with the intention of using Taiwan as a pawn to contain China. On the other hand, Washington is believed to lack resolve and capabilities.

This “paper tiger” line significantly complicates efforts to maintain stability across the Taiwan Strait. If Pelosi had decided to cancel her trip to Taiwan after Beijing’s protest, China would probably have launched a propaganda campaign ridiculing Washington’s claim that its commitment to Taiwan was “rock solid”. However, whenever the US tries to signal its resolve and capabilities, Beijing is likely to interpret this as evidence of hostility.

Read more here: George Yin and S Philip Hsu – By taunting the US ‘paper tiger’, China risks provoking a backlash over Taiwan

Overnight Reuters has reported that US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reassured the Philippines that the US would come to its defence if attacked in the South China Sea.

In a visit to Manila which has been dominated by tensions over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and the subsequent Chinese military drills around the disputed territory Blinken said the defence pact with the Philippines was “ironclad.”

“An armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels and aircraft will invoke US mutual defence commitments. The Philippines is an irreplaceable friend, partner, and ally to the United States,” Blinken told a news conference.

Taiwan’s official Central News Agency has reported that Taiwan’s army will conduct live-fire artillery drills in southern Pingtung County on Tuesday and Thursday, in response to the Chinese exercises.

Associated Press reports the drills will include snipers, combat vehicles, armoured vehicles as well as attack helicopters, according to the report, which cited an anonymous source.

Both Taiwan and China have issued video clip compilations of what they say are their forces in action during the drills on social media this morning.

Global Times, Chinese-state media, posted nearly two minutes of video which it claimed shows “100+ warplanes being deployed”, a new in-flight refuelling capability, and navy ships conducting a joint blockade exercise.

Taiwan’s ministry of defence issued a video with an eye towards father’s day in the territory tomorrow, lamenting that “service members are busy with their job instead of being with their families”. The video ended with a message “Thank you to every soldier on the front line”.

China will conduct 'regular' drills on eastern side of median line – state media commentator

The Chinese military will from now on conduct “regular” drills on the eastern side of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator.

The median line in the narrow strait between the island of Taiwan and mainland China is an unofficial line of control that military aircraft and battleships from either side normally do not cross.

Reuters reports that the state television commentator said the median line has never been legally recognised, and is an “imaginary” line drawn up by the US military for their combat requirements in the previous century.

Taiwan’s defence ministry has issued another photograph, which it says shows its forces rehearsing the loading of missiles.

Handout image of Taiwan Navy soldiersrehearsing at an undisclosed location.
Handout image of Taiwan Navy soldiers
rehearsing at an undisclosed location. Photograph: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters

Reuters reports Taiwan said its shore-based anti-ship missiles and its Patriot surface-to-air-missiles were on stand-by. The defence ministry said its F-16 jet fighters were flying with advanced anti-aircraft missiles. It was also using Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets.

A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet approaches an airbase for landing in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet approaches an airbase for landing in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA

David Smith in Washington offers some analysis for the Guardian this morning, writing:

It was perhaps telling that US President Joe Biden and Democrats remained mostly silent, whereas Nancy Pelosi’s loudest cheerleaders were rightwing Republicans and China hawks including Newt Gingrich.

Some commentators believe that a superpower conflict between America and China over Taiwan or another issue is one day inevitable. White Pelosi may have shaved a few years off that forecast, it could be argued that Biden himself has supplied some of the kindling.

For months the president has sown doubts about America’s commitment to the “One China” policy, under which the US recognises formal ties with China rather than Taiwan. In May, when asked if the US would be get involved military to defend Taiwan, he replied forcefully: “Yes. That’s the commitment we made.”

Although America is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has never directly promised to intervene militarily in a conflict with China. This delicate equilibrium has helped deter Taiwan from declaring full independence and China from invading. But some worry that Biden is supplanting this longstanding position of “strategic ambiguity” with “strategic confusion”.

You can read more of David Smith’s analysis from Washington here: Pelosi’s ‘reckless’ Taiwan visit deepens US-China rupture – why did she go?

Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia programme at the US-based German Marshall Fund think tank, has told AFP that Taiwan might have to get used to these sorts of exercises. It quotes her saying:

I think prolonged tensions are unlikely. But certainly a major crisis would affect shipping, insurance rates, trade routes, and supply chains.

It will become the norm to have exercises that are close to the main Taiwan island itself. This time it has set a new precedent that the People’s Liberation Army will conduct drills of this sort.

We’re looking at the bar being raised to another level for future exercises of this scale and intensity.”

She said that while China had previously periodically probed Taiwan’s defences, the visit of Nancy Pelosi had “given them the excuse or justification to say that in the future they will just legitimately carry out exercises east of the median line without having to pay due regard to it at all.”

China’s live-fire drills around Taiwan - which saw vessels encircle the democratically ruled island - have offered an unprecedented insight into how Beijing may conduct a military campaign against its neighbour, AFP reports.

Beijing has also imposed economic sanctions and increased efforts to isolate Taiwan on the international stage, in a move that experts say will permanently alter the status quo on the Taiwan Strait.

The Chinese military has conducted drills on Taiwan’s eastern flank, a strategically vital area for supplies to the island’s military forces - as well as any potential American reinforcements - for the first time.

This has sent an ominous signal that Beijing can now blockade the entire island and could prevent any entry or exit of commercial or military ships and aircraft.

Analysts have long speculated that this will be one of China’s preferred strategies in the event of a war to conquer Taiwan.

Ed Moon is a reporter for TaiwanPlus, and he writes for us today on reaction in the Taiwanese island of Kinmen:

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Kinmen, also known as Quemoy. Old military sites, relics from when the islands were the cold war frontline between China and Taiwan, litter the landscape. Giant speakers on the coast that once blared propaganda across the sea now play soft music.

On 23 August 1958, China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), launched a ferocious artillery bombardment of Kinmen that continued, to some extent, for more than 20 years. Many people in Kinmen can vividly remember living under constant shelling – a fact that sets people in Kinmen apart from most Taiwanese.

“Everyone who lived here then has friends and family who were killed. We had to dig our own air raid shelters. If you didn’t, there was nowhere to hide when the shells fell,” Wu Tseng-dong says.

This legacy and divergent histories – unlike Taiwan proper, Kinmen has for hundreds of years been entirely under Chinese rule in one form or another – mean few in Kinmen would even refer to themselves as “Taiwanese”. They are happy to be part of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s official name, and see no need to declare a separate, independent country.

Read more of Ed Moon’s report here: ‘All we can hope for is peace’: the view from Kinmen, once the cold war frontline between China and Taiwan

Taiwan’s military have released some images of how its service personnel were responding to China’s military drills.

A Taiwan Navy soldier monitors Chinese activity at an undisclosed location in this image released on 7 August.
A Taiwan Navy soldier monitors Chinese activity at an undisclosed location in this image released on 7 August. Photograph: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters
A Taiwan navy soldier rehearses a missile loading operation at an undisclosed location in this image released on 7 August.
A Taiwan navy soldier rehearses a missile loading operation at an undisclosed location in this image released on 7 August. Photograph: Taiwan Military News Agency/Reuters

Summary of the day so far …

It is 3.30pm in Taiwan, and here is a summary of the latest situation.

  • China again conducted military drills and exercises around Taiwan on Sunday. The four day show of military strength had been a response to US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the disputed territory earlier in the week.
  • Taiwan’s defence ministry earlier said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island.
  • China’s navigational warnings and NOTAMs for military exercises around Taiwan have expired, excluding in one area, and China didn’t extend those exercises as some had previously thought they might.
  • Taiwan’s transport ministry said flights through its airspace had gradually resumed on Sunday about noon as most notifications for Chinese military drills near the island were “no longer in effect”.
  • Taiwan’s mainland affairs council (MAC) – which sets policy towards the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – has called on Beijing authorities to “exercise restraint and immediately stop all of its belligerent behaviours”. The council accused the PRC of continuing with its military exercises around Taiwan “as part of a simulation for an attack and a blockade in order to intimidate Taiwan and neighbouring countries”.
  • Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang says China has “arrogantly” used military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability. Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Sunday, Su also called on Beijing to not flex its military muscles, and condemned “foreign enemies” he said were attempting to sap the morale of the Taiwanese people through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
  • A White House spokesperson has said China is trying to “change the status quo” through its military drills around Taiwan.
  • Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US has said the self-governing island has been “bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world” for too long and maintained its people would not surrender their freedom.
  • Beijing has announced it will hold further military exercises near the southern part of the Yellow Sea and Bohai, near South Korea. The exercises are expected to start on Monday 8 August and last until 8 September.
  • Chinese diplomats continue in their campaign to lay the blame on the US and accuse Washington of causing chaos in the region. On Saturday, Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, accused the US of interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs. Chunying also said the US should have stopped Pelosi’s visit.

This is Martin Belam here in London, and I will be bringing you any further reaction to China’s military exercises as it develops. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

Taiwan’s transport ministry said flights through its airspace had gradually resumed on Sunday about noon as most notifications for Chinese military drills near the island were “no longer in effect” according to a Reuters report.

The ministry said in a statement, however, that Taiwan would continue to direct flights and ships away from a Chinese military drill off its eastern coast until 10am local time on Monday morning.

Taiwan’s mainland affairs council (MAC) has called on Beijing authorities to “exercise restraint and immediately stop all of its belligerent behaviours”.

The council accused China of continuing with its military exercises around Taiwan “as part of a simulation for an attack and a blockade in order to intimidate Taiwan and neighbouring countries”.

A statement statement released on Sunday added:

CCP officials such as Foreign Minister Wang Yi have been persistently and openly distorting truths on the international stage, blaming others for the CCP’s own actions jeopardising peace across the Taiwan Strait, and smearing our national leader with vulgar language.

The MAC once again expresses our condemnation to mainland China’s military intimidation, serious encroachment of our national sovereignty, and violent and aggressive strikes that affect regional security.

We solemnly warn that the Beijing authorities must be rational, exercise restraint, and immediately stop all of its belligerent behaviours.

The MAC emphasised that the Republic of China is a sovereign state; the fact that the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other is an objective truth and cross-Strait status quo.

From the perspectives of history, international law, and cross-Strait reality, Taiwan has never been, and will never be, subordinate to the People’s Republic of China. The future of the Republic of China (Taiwan) can only be determined by its 23 million people.”

The MAC maintained that Taiwan “has remained calm and rational in this situation”.

We will firmly safeguard our national sovereignty, security, and the line of defence for freedom and democracy. We also call on members of the global democratic community to continue supporting Taiwan and jointly curb authoritarian regimes’ irresponsible actions, especially military adventurism and sabotage of peace.”

Beijing has announced it will hold military exercises near the southern part of the Yellow Sea and Bohai, near South Korea.

The exercises are expected to start on Monday, 8 August, and last until 8 September.

The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command announced on China’s social media platform Weibo at midday on Sunday that it will continue to conduct coordinated maritime and aerial military exercises around Taiwan, and the focus of these exercises will be testing the PLA’s ground attack and long-range aerial attack capabilities, local media outlets report.

Some images of Taiwanese aircraft seen flying over an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, have been released across our newswires today.

Taiwan’s defence ministry earlier said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island after multiple Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones continued to conduct joint drills near Taiwan.

Two Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets fly by an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Sunday 7 August.
Two Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets fly by an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Sunday 7 August. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet approaches an airbase for landing in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet approaches an airbase for landing in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet seen as Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones continued to conduct joint drills near Taiwan on Sunday morning.
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet seen as Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones continued to conduct joint drills near Taiwan on Sunday morning. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA

US warns Pacific isles of ‘struggle’ against coercive regimes

A top US diplomat warned Pacific Islands of a new struggle against violent power-hungry regimes on Sunday, as she visited the Solomon Islands to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II’s Battle of Guadalcanal.

US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman said a new crop of world leaders are reviving “bankrupt” ideas about the use of force, according to a recent report from Agence France-Presse.

Visiting a battlefield memorial in the Solomon Islands, Sherman said “some around the world” had forgotten the cost of war, or were ignoring the lessons of the past.

She hit out at “leaders who believe that coercion, pressure, and violence are tools to be used with impunity”, without citing any leader by name.

Painting the situation today as carrying faint echoes of the fight against Nazism and Imperial Japan in the 1930-40s, Sherman urged the region to push back.

We remember how bankrupt, how empty, such views were then, and remain today,” she said.

Today we are once again engaged in a different kind of struggle - a struggle that will go on for some time to come.”

Sherman told her hosts “it is up to us to decide if we want to continue having societies where people are free to speak their minds.”

It is time, she said, to decide “if we want to have governments that are transparent and accountable to their people.”

China lifts no-go notices for drill areas - reports

China appears set to wrap up its largest-ever military exercises surrounding Taiwan later today.

It has deployed fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles around Taiwan in what analysts have described as practising a blockade and ultimate invasion of the island.

Those exercises are set to wrap up Sunday, though Beijing has announced fresh drills in the Yellow Sea - located between China and the Korean peninsula - to take place until 15 August.

According to some unconfirmed reports, China has lifted its no-go notices for drill areas.

China’s navigational warnings and NOTAMs for military exercises around Taiwan have expired, excluding one area, and China didn’t extend those exercises as some previously thought, according to regional military analysts.

Updated

China claims US should have stopped Pelosi's visit

Chinese diplomats continue in their campaign to lay the blame on the US and accuse Washington of causing chaos in the region.

On Saturday, Hua Chunying, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, accused the US of interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs.

Chunying also said the US should have stopped Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week.

She added that the US needs to stop trying to “hollow out” the one-China policy. This refers to an arrangement dating back to the 1970s that countries can maintain formal diplomatic relations with China or Taiwan, but not both.

China’s former ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, has also just posted a lengthy series of tweets in which he quotes China’s foreign minister, Yang Wi.

In total disregard of the firm opposition and repeated representations of the Chinese side and with the condonement and even arrangement of the US government, Pelosi went ahead with the visit to China’s Taiwan region.

This reckless move seriously undermined China’s sovereignty, seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs, seriously violated the commitments by the US, seriously jeopardised peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. It is only natural that China makes a firm response.

Our position is justified, reasonable and legal; our measures are firm, strong and measured; and our military exercises are open, transparent and professional. They are consistent with domestic and international laws, as well as international practices.

They are aimed at sending a warning to the perpetrator and punishing the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces. We will firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, resolutely stop the United States’ attempt to use the Taiwan card to contain China.

We will firmly shatter the Taiwan authorities’ illusion to pursue Taiwan independence by soliciting the support of the US. At the same time, we are upholding the international law and the basic norms governing international relations, particularly non-interference in countries’ internal affairs.

This is the most important international norm enshrined in the UN Charter. If the principle of non-interference is discarded, the world will return to the law of the jungle, the UshnaShah will become even more unscrupulous in treating and bullying other countries.”

Taiwan’s defence ministry says it has sent aircraft and ships to “appropriately” react to Chinese military drills around the island.

Multiple Chinese military ships, aircraft, and drones continued to conduct joint drills near Taiwan on Sunday morning, simulating attacks on Taiwan and Taiwanese navy ships, the self-ruled island’s defence ministry said in a news release as reported by Reuters.

Two Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets fly by an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, 7 August.
Two Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets fly by an airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, 7 August. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA

Updated

Taiwan’s Premier Su Tseng-chang says China has “arrogantly” used military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability, according to a Reuters report.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Sunday, Su also called on Beijing to not flex its military muscles, and condemned “foreign enemies” he said were attempting to sap the morale of the Taiwanese people through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has made some rather controversial remarks in an interview with CNN.

“They’re [China] not encircling Taiwan, Taiwan is part of China, and that’s been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948, and if you don’t know that, you’re not reading enough. Go and read about it,” the musician said.

Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US has said the self-governing island has been “bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world” for too long and maintained its people would not surrender their freedom.

In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Bi-khim Hsiao said:

For too long, Taiwan has been bullied, marginalised and isolated from the world and banned from international organisations. We don’t take our democracy for granted and we don’t take our friends for granted.

The scope and the range of the current exercises do demonstrate that this has long been in the coming. China’s escalation is unreasonable and unnecessary. We think it’s important that they understand such engagements between the people of Taiwan and the people around the world are consistent, with decades of practice.

There is no reason for them to escalate. Are we worried and concerned? Yes. That’s why we are also committed to investing in our own self-defence, in fortifying our asymmetric capabilities, in reforming our reserves, in better integrating civilian support in our homeland defence.

But I have to make clear that we don’t want war. We want peace. We will do anything we can to de-escalate. But we will not surrender our freedom.”

Updated

China and Russia have agreed to maintain “strategic coordination and deepen practical cooperation” after meeting in Cambodia on the sidelines of talks with top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China’s ambassador to Asean, Deng Xijun, shared a photo of China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, saying “both sides agreeing to maintain strategic coordination and deepen practical cooperation”.

China blames US for escalating tensions

Chinese diplomats continue in their campaign to lay the blame on the US and accuse Washington of causing chaos in the region.

China’s ambassador to Asean, Deng Xijun, has provided a summary of foreign minister Wang Yi’s press conference after attending the series of foreign ministers’ meetings on East Asia cooperation in Phnom Penh.

Wang pointed out that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in total disregard of the firm opposition and repeated representations of the Chinese side and with the condonement and even arrangement of the US government, went ahead with the visit to China’s Taiwan region.

It is only natural that China makes a firm response. Our position is justified, reasonable and legal; our measures are firm, strong and measured; and our military exercises are open, transparent and professional.

In response to the US argument that a visit to Taiwan by the House Speaker is not without precedence, Wang stressed that the visit of then Speaker Newt Gingrich to Taiwan is a terrible mistake, and the Chinese government vehemently opposed it at the time.

Wang called on all parties to stay highly vigilant against the reported US expansion of military deployment in the region. The typical US playbook is to create a problem first, then use that to achieve its own objective. But in front of China, this just won’t work!”

China warns Australia against 'finger-pointing'

The Chinese embassy in Australia has this morning condemned a joint statement made by the foreign ministers of Australia, Japan and the United States that expressed concerns over China’s military drills in Taiwan.

The Chinese embassy in Australia released a lengthy statement saying:

Instead of expressing sympathy and support to the victim, the Australian side has condemned the victim along with the perpetrators. This is completely putting the cart before the horse and reversing the right from the wrong.”

The statement went on to say that Japan “should be the first to engage in self-reflection and discretion” for its history of colonisation in Taiwan.

“Australia should not take sides and blindly make unfair judgments that run counter to the facts.”

It is absolutely unacceptable for the finger-pointing on China’s justified actions to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity. We firmly oppose and sternly condemn this.

The statement went on to defend the actions taken by the Chinese government as “legitimate and justified” in order to “safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and curb the separatist activities”.

The spokesperson says the one-China principle “should be strictly abided by and fully honoured. It should not be misinterpreted or compromised in practice.”

China's military drills 'provocative' and 'irresponsible', US says

A White House spokesperson has said China is trying to “change the status quo” through its military drills around Taiwan.

These activities are a significant escalation in China’s efforts to change the status quo. They are provocative, irresponsible, and raise the risk of miscalculation,” the spokesperson said.

They are also at odds with our longstanding goal of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is what the world expects.”

China’s defence ministry said it had carried out military exercises as planned in the sea and airspaces to the north, south-west, and east of Taiwan, with a focus on “testing the capabilities” of its land strike and sea assault systems.

Updated

Taiwan accuses China of simulating an attack on island

China’s military has pressed ahead with its largest ever military drills, targeting Taiwan with what the island’s government called a simulated attack, including further incursions over the median line and drone flights over Taiwan’s outlying islands.

On Saturday, Taiwan’s ministry of defence said it had observed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planes and ships operating in the Taiwan strait, believing them to be simulating an attack on its main island.

“Multiple batches of Chinese communist planes and ships conducting activities around the Taiwan strait, some of which crossed the median line,” it said, referring to the unofficial border in the waters between China and Taiwan.

On Saturday, Taiwan also scrambled jets to warn away 20 Chinese aircraft, including 14 that crossed the Taiwan strait median line, according to Reuters, citing Taiwan’s defence ministry.

Chinese boats repeatedly 'press' into Taiwan buffer zone - reports

About 10 Chinese and Taiwanese navy boats continued to stay close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Sunday morning, a source briefed on the matter has told Reuters.

The source added Chinese boats repeatedly “pressed” into the unofficial buffer, while Taiwan’s navy stayed close-by to monitor the movements.

Both sides have shown restraint so far, the source familiar with the security planning in the region said, since similar navy manoeuvring on Monday near the median line separating China and Taiwan.

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of tensions between China and Taiwan.

I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments.

It is approaching 10am in Beijing. Here is everything you might have missed:

  • Taiwan’s defence ministry accused Chinese aircraft and ships of carrying out a simulated attack on its main island on Saturday. Several batches of Chinese aircraft and ships were detected in the Taiwan Strait, 14 of which crossed the median line – an unofficial buffer separating the two sides – according to the ministry. Taiwan’s army used patrolling naval ships and put shore-based missiles on standby in response.
  • The White House has condemned the escalation in military drills. “These activities are a significant escalation in China’s efforts to change the status quo. They are provocative, irresponsible, and raise the risk of miscalculation,” a spokesperson said.
  • China has accused the US of interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said the US should have stopped Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week.
  • The Chinese embassy warned Australia against involvement in its actions over Taiwan, saying “finger-pointing” against Beijing was unacceptable. Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, earlier condemned Beijing’s “disproportionate and destabilising” actions, saying she had expressed her concern to her Chinese counterpart at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.
  • Taiwan’s defence ministry said its naval forces were keeping tabs on China’s military vessels off the eastern coast.
  • China’s People’s Liberation Army’s eastern theatre command said it continued on Saturday to conduct sea and air joint exercises north, south-west and east of Taiwan, as planned. It said its focus was on testing land strike and sea assault capabilities.
  • The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said China should not hold “hostage” important global matters such as the climate crisis, after Beijing cut off contacts with Washington in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
  • Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin, the former US president, Donald Trump, questioned why Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. “What was she doing in Taiwan? She was China’s dream, she gave them an excuse. They’ve been looking for that excuse.”
  • A Taiwan official who was in charge of various missile production projects was found dead on Saturday morning in a hotel room in southern Taiwan, according to the official Central News Agency. Ou Yang Li-hsing, the deputy head of the military-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, was 57. The cause of his death was unknown, CNA reported.
  • The US, Australian and Japanese foreign ministers have urged China to immediately cease military exercises around Taiwan. In a joint statement, officials expressed their concern about China’s recent actions “that gravely affect international peace and stability, including the use of large-scale military exercises”. They also condemned China’s launch of ballistic missiles, five of which the Japanese government reported landed in its exclusive economic zones “raising tension and destabilising the region”.
  • Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said Chinese military drills near Taiwan were a threat to regional security and a “serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens”.
  • North Korea denounced Nancy Pelosi as “the worst destroyer of international peace and stability”, after the US House speaker expressed her commitment during a visit to South Korea to achieving the North’s denuclearisation. It also condemned her trip to Taiwan.
Taiwanese naval frigate Lan Yang is seen from the deck of a Chinese military ship during military exercises on Friday, 5 August.
Taiwanese naval frigate Lan Yang is seen from the deck of a Chinese military ship during military exercises on Friday, 5 August. Photograph: Lin Jian/AP
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