China fires back at Taiwan
China has delivered on its vow that Taipei will pay the price for hosting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday by launching many missiles toward waters close to northeastern and southern Taiwan, according to the island's Defense Ministry.
Multiple missiles have been launched into the water off the eastern coast of Taiwan, according to a statement from the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command. It claimed that every missile struck its target precisely.
As part of upcoming military drills surrounding the island, the Eastern Theater Command claimed to have conducted long-range, live-fire training in the Taiwan Strait.
Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, three islands in the Taiwan Strait that are closer to the mainland than Taiwan's main island but still within striking distance of it, were hit by Chinese long-range missiles, according to Taiwan.
Later, it claimed that a total of 11 Dongfeng (DF) missiles were launched on Thursday between 1:56 and 4 p.m. local time (1:56 and 4 a.m. ET) into the waters to the north, south, and east of the island.
According to a Chinese military analyst speaking on the official media network CCTV on Thursday, the Chinese missiles sailed over Taiwan Island for the first time, marking a significant uptick in China's military intimidation of Taiwan.
According to Maj. Gen. Meng Xiangqing, a professor of strategy at the National Defensive University in Beijing, the conventional missiles passed across airspace protected by Taiwanese defense missiles.
In a statement released late on Thursday night, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said that because the rockets' course was above the atmosphere, Taiwan was not in danger.
Authorities did not issue air raid alerts because it was anticipated that the missiles would crash in the waters east of Taiwan, the report claimed.
Chinese official media said that drills simulating an air and sea "blockade" surrounding Taiwan had begun on Wednesday, but provided little supporting information.
Images taken later on Thursday showed military chopper aircraft flying over Pingtan island, which is one of Taiwan's closest points to mainland of China.
House Speaker leaves Taiwan, but the navy is still present
The military's display of force came after Pelosi departed the island on Wednesday evening in order to travel to South Korea, one of the last legs of her Asian tour that will culminate this weekend in Japan.
The Taiwan Defense Ministry said that China flew more than 20 fighter planes across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing claims it does not recognize but generally regards as the boundary between the mainland and Taiwan, only hours after she left Taipei on Wednesday.
The ministry added that 22 Chinese airplanes breached the strait median line on Thursday and entered its air defense identification zone.
The ministry added that on Thursday night local time, it discovered four drones flying over "restricted seas" near the Kinmen islands, a collection of Taiwan-controlled outlying islands close to China, in three different batches.
Taiwan fires back at the PLA
Without identifying the origin or kind of the drones, Taiwan's defense ministry said in a statement Thursday night that the military had used flares to scare them away.
The ministry said that it was still monitoring the situation and was still on high alert.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry described the live-fire drills as "irrational conduct" that sought to "alter the status quo" on Thursday, adding that its military was still in a "normal" but cautious posture.
In a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, Taiwan also charged China with "following North Korea's example of arbitrary test-firing of missiles in waters adjacent to other nations."
CNN’s Rob Picheta, Wayne Chang, Emi Jozuka, and Eric Cheung contributed to this report.
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Episode 9: China is now entering phase 2 and the U.S. seems to back down