China took tensions with Taiwan to the brink of war today with a huge display of firepower designed to intimidate its tiny neighbour.
The communist giant deployed more than 100 warplanes and fired live missiles into the sea off Taiwan’s coast in its biggest ever military exercise.
China’s chilling muscle-flexing was in revenge for top US politician Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan’s capital Taipei to show solidarity with the isolated island democracy.
Taiwan fired flares to drive off four Chinese drones that flew over nearby islands and 10 warships that approached its coast. By midday, warships from both sides remained in close proximity.
Taiwan also scrambled jets and deployed missile systems to warn off 22 Chinese fighters which crossed the Taiwan Strait into its air defence zone.
A Taiwanese source said: “They flew in and then flew out, again and again. They continue to harass us.”
China’s military later confirmed multiple firings of conventional missiles in waters off Taiwan as part of exercises set to run until Sunday.
Japan immediately protested that five missiles appeared to land in its economic zone amid fears of a wider regional conflict. But China’s defence ministry blamed the US. A spokesman said: “The US-Taiwan collusion and provocation will only push Taiwan towards the abyss of disaster, bringing catastrophe to Taiwan compatriots.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen responded defiantly: “Taiwan will never be knocked down by challenges. We are rational and not provocative, but we will be firm and not shirk.”
Taiwan said 11 Chinese Dongfeng ballistic missiles had been fired in nearby waters – for the first time since 1996.
It insisted the drills violated United Nations rules, invaded its space and threatened free navigation.
Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang nationalists.
The KMT-led government then retreated to the island. China insists Taiwan is part of its territory.
Mrs Pelosi, 82, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, made the trip in defiance of warnings from China which says it has the right to take Taiwan by force.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s visit “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational”, its state broadcaster reported.
