Following the arrival of a delegation of American lawmakers in Taiwan, China on Monday announced more military drills in the waters and skies around Taiwan.
The drills comes as part of Chinese fury on increased US-Taiwan engagement. Earlier, following the visit of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China had launched its biggest-ever military drills around Taiwan, pressing in fighter aircraft and warships, and carrying out missile launches.
Missiles not only landed in waters close to Taiwan but also flew over the island and some also landed in Japan's economic zone waters.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and has pledged to unify it with the mainland. Beijing has not ruled out the use of force for the purpose of unification.
The US lawmakers are visiting Taiwain within two weeks of Pelosi's visit. Besides announcing fresh military drills, China accused US of destabilising the region. Reuters reported that China's Embassy in Washington as saying on Sunday that the visit "once again proves that the US does not want to see stability across the Taiwan Straits and has spared no effort to stir up confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China's internal affairs".
The five-member delegation is led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey. The other members are Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democratic House members John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, and Don Beyer.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen met the delegation on Monday. The visit and the meeting is being seen as another sign of support among American lawmakers for Taiwan.
"I’m traveling to Taiwan with a bipartisan congressional delegation to reaffirm US support for Taiwan and encourage stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait," said Markey in a tweet.
(With AP inputs)
