China sent warships and aircraft to Taiwan for a second day on Friday and said the island remained an “inseparable part” of it after President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Defense Ministry in Taipei said three Chinese warships moved into the waters surrounding the self-ruled island, while a fighter jet and an anti-submarine helicopter also crossed Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
After visiting Taiwan’s dwindling band of official diplomatic allies in Latin America, Tsai returned on Friday with two US stopovers that included meetings with McCarthy and other lawmakers.
Describing his visit as a success, he told reporters: “We let the international community see that Taiwan is more united in the face of pressure and threats.”
“We will never bow down to oppression and we will never stop interacting with the world because of any obstacle.”
Hours before his meeting with McCarthy in Los Angeles on Wednesday, China sent its Shandong aircraft carrier through Taiwan’s southeastern waters on its way to the western Pacific.
After repeatedly warning against a Tsai-McCarthy meeting, Beijing said on Friday that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China”.
“China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity will never be divided,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press briefing.
“Taiwan’s future lies in reunification with the motherland.”
AFP reporters on Pingtan Island, China’s closest outpost to Taiwan, saw a military ship and at least three military helicopters passing through the strait on Friday afternoon.
The silver-grey colored Dongtuo-859 tugboat headed south about a kilometer from the coast, while two planes flew north over the water at a very low altitude.
It was not immediately clear whether the movements represented an escalation of normal patrols that Beijing conducts in the area.