Nancy Pelosi (centre) after landing in downtown Taipei, Taiwan, on August 2 (Image: Twitter/@SpeakerPelosi)
More than 21 Chinese military planes entered Taiwan's air defence zone on Tuesday, officials in Taipei said, hours as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began her visit to the island. Taiwan's defence ministry took to Twitter and said "21 PLA aircraft entered #Taiwan's southwest ADIZ on August 2, 2022," referring to the air defence identification zone.
Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday evening, defying a string of increasingly stark warnings and threats from China and becoming the highest-ranked American official to visit the Chinese-claimed territory in the last 25 years.
Pelosi, along with a delegation of the US Congress, landed at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei, where she was received by Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday the island would "not back down" as a furious China geared up for military drills in retaliation for the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Facing deliberately heightened military threats, Taiwan will not back down. We will... continue to hold the line of defence for democracy," Tsai said at an event with Pelosi in Taipei.
Pelosi, on arrival, said her "delegation's visit to Taiwan honours America's unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan's vibrant democracy". "Our discussions with [the] Taiwan leadership reaffirm our support for our partner & promote our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region," she said.
China condemned the visit as "a major political provocation" and said it would launch "targeted military operations" as countermeasures, even as Beijing on Tuesday scrambled Su-35 fighters across the median of the Taiwan Strait in a show of force, placed restrictions on several Taiwanese exporters, and announced live-fire drills to be held in six regions surrounding the island of Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday.
China's Defence Ministry said it is "on high alert" while the PLA Eastern Theatre Command announced it will hold joint sea and air exercises in the sea and airspaces of northern, southwestern, and southeastern Taiwan and also carry out missile tests.