The Chinese military said Thursday it has conducted a live-fire drill in the strait dividing Taiwan and the mainland, beginning a four-day large-scale exercise in areas encircling the island in response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered Beijing.
The military's Eastern Theater Command said that at around 1 p.m., its armed forces carried out long-range precise strikes at specific areas in the eastern part of the Taiwan Strait and achieved expected results.
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China has said the exercises will take place in six locations around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday. Beijing also conducted drills in the Taiwan Strait in the run-up and during Pelosi's roughly 19-hour visit to the island through Wednesday as a show of protest. It has called the exercises a "legitimate" response to a "major provocation" by the United States.
The high-profile visit has led to a spike in cross-strait tensions. Beijing had warned before Pelosi's trip that the Chinese military would "never sit idly by."
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
