China Begins Drills Around Taiwan After U.S. Speaker Meeting

China began three days of military exercises around Taiwan on Saturday to express anger at Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The drills, announced the day after Tsai returned from the United States, had been widely expected after the Chinese communist regime condemned the meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles. The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said it had started the combat readiness patrols and “Joint Sword” exercises around Taiwan, having said earlier it would be holding them in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south, and east of Taiwan “as planned”, reports The Epoch Times. Taiwan’s defence ministry said it was monitoring the situation, maintaining a high degree of vigilance and would respond appropriately to defend the island’s security. The CCP was using Tsai’s U.S. visit “as an excuse to carry out military exercises, which has seriously damaged regional peace, stability, and security”, the ministry said in a statement.