furious with the United States, China launches unprecedented military exercises

Thursday, August 4, China began a series of live ammunition military maneuvers around Taiwan. These should last about four days. According to New York Times, Beijing is in the process of launching “test” exercises to contain the island of 24 million inhabitants. The Chinese media assured that it was only “preliminaries” which preceded larger shows of force in response to the visit to the island the day before by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. China, which claims Taiwan, was furious at this diplomatic bravado.

Five missiles crashed in Japanese territorial waters, according to Tokyo, but the Chinese government says the missiles hit the intended target. At least 11 more are believed to have hit waters north, south and then east of Taiwan. A total of 22 People’s Liberation Army aircraft entered areas around Taiwan. Missiles would have flown over the Matsu Islands, a few kilometers from the Chinese coast, then, according to the Chinese press, maritime and air traffic would have been disrupted.