Taiwan condemns ’evil neighbour’ China over war drills

Taiwan blasted its "evil neighbour next door" on Aug. 5 after China encircled the island with a series of huge military drills that were condemned by the United States and other Western allies.

During Thursday's military exercises, which continued Friday, China fired ballistic missiles and deployed both fighter jets and warships around Taiwan.

The People's Liberation Army declared multiple no-go danger zones around Taiwan, straddling some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and at some points coming within 20 kilometres (12 miles) of the island's shores.
Beijing has said the exercises will continue until midday Sunday, and Taipei reported that Chinese fighter jets and ships crossed the "median line" that runs down the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning.
"As of 11am, multiple batches of Chinese warplanes and warships conducted exercises around the Taiwan Strait and crossed the median line of the strait," Taipei's defence ministry said in a statement.
The median line is an unofficial but once largely adhered-to border that runs down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and China.

Chinese incursions have become more common since Beijing declared in 2020 that the unofficial border no longer existed.
Beijing has called its war games a "necessary" response to a visit to the self-ruled, democratic island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Washington countered that China's leaders had "chosen to overreact".
Pelosi defended her visit Friday, saying Washington will "not allow" China to isolate Taiwan.
"We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in Asia, changing the status quo in Taiwan," she told reporters in Tokyo on the final leg of an...