- Suspected drones fly over remote Taiwanese islands
- The Ministry of Defense says its website was attacked, briefly offline
- Chinese military exercises begin with live firing
- China says it’s an inside job
TAIPEI, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Suspected drones flew over remote Taiwanese islands and hackers attacked the Defense Ministry website, authorities in Taipei said on Thursday, a day after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered China .
China was to begin a series of military exercises around Taiwan on Thursday in response to Pelosi’s visit, some of which were to take place within the island’s 12 nautical miles of sea and air territory, according to the defense ministry in Taipei.
This has never happened before and a senior ministry official described the potential move as “amounting to a sea and air blockade of Taiwan”.
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China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, said on Thursday that its differences with the self-ruled island were an internal affair. Read more
“Our punishment of Taiwan independence supporters, foreign powers, is reasonable, lawful,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said.
China’s Xinhua news agency said the drills, which include live fire drills, will be held in six areas around Taiwan and will begin at 04:00 GMT.
On Wednesday evening, just hours after Pelosi left for South Korea, an unidentified aircraft, possibly a drone, flew over the Kinmen Islands region, Taiwan’s defense ministry said. Read more
Major General Chang Zone-sung of the army’s Kinmen Defense Command told Reuters the drones came in twos and flew over the Kinmen area twice on Wednesday evening at around 9:00 pm (1:00 GMT). and 10 in the evening
“Immediately we fired flares to warn and chase them away. Then they turned around. They entered our no-go zone and that’s why we dispersed them,” he said.
The heavily fortified Kinmen Islands are just off the southeast coast of China, near the city of Xiamen.
The Defense Ministry also said its website suffered cyber attacks and was temporarily down late Wednesday night, adding that it was working closely with other authorities to improve cyber security as tensions with China rose. Read more
Pelosi, the highest-ranking US visitor to Taiwan in 25 years, praised democracy and pledged American solidarity during her brief stop, adding that Chinese anger could not stop world leaders from traveling there.
China summoned the US ambassador to Beijing and suspended several agricultural imports from Taiwan.
Security in the area around the U.S. embassy in Beijing remained unusually tight Thursday, as it has been all week.
Although Chinese social media users vented their anger at Pelosi, there were no signs of significant protests or calls for a boycott of American products.
“I WILL NOT LEAVE TAIWAN”
Taiwan launched jets on Wednesday to warn off 27 Chinese planes in its air defense zone, the island’s defense ministry said, adding that 22 of them had crossed the median line separating the island from China. Read more
Pelosi arrived with a congressional delegation on her unannounced but closely watched visit late Tuesday, despite repeated warnings from China and amid a sharp deterioration in US-China relations.
“Our delegation came to Taiwan to make it unequivocally clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” Pelosi told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing suspects is pushing for formal independence — a red line for China. Read more
“Now, more than ever, America’s solidarity with Taiwan is critical, and that is the message we bring here today.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has never refused to use force to bring it under its control. The United States and the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries warned China against using the visit as a pretext for military action against Taiwan.
“Unfortunately, Taiwan has been prevented from participating in global meetings, most recently the World Health Organization, due to objections from the Chinese Communist Party,” Pelosi said in a statement released after her departure.
“While they can prevent Taiwan from sending its leaders to global forums, they cannot prevent world leaders or anyone else from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing democracy, highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued cooperation,” Pelosi added. Read more
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Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Tony Munro; Written by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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