Chinese warships and jets skirt Taiwanese coastline as Beijing tries to keep up pressure after Pelosi visit

As exercises encircling the island continue, state media publishes images showing a marine monitoring the coastline deep inside territorial waters

Foreign Minister Wang Yi warns US not to ‘stir up a bigger crisis’ but Washington says many countries are concerned by China’s ‘unacceptable’ behaviour

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State news agency Xinhua published a photo of a Chinese serviceman looking at the Taiwan coast on board a warship. Photo: AP

Published: 11:29pm, 6 Aug 2022

Mainland Chinese warships have pressed deep into Taiwan’s territorial waters for the first time as Beijing kept up military and diplomatic pressure on the island over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.

On Saturday, the third day of its unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, state news agency Xinhua released a photo taken the previous day showing a marine monitoring the coastline of Taiwan.

While the People’s Liberation Army did not specify where it was taken, a white structure that appeared to be the chimney of the Ho-Ping power plant in Hualien country on the east coast of Taiwan could be identified.

Xinhua also released footage of a PLA fighter jet flying along the coastline of the island.

It means that not only have the PLA warships and warplanes crossed the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait, they are apparently deep into the 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of Taiwan’s territorial space – a first in the PLA’s history.

Xinhua said the PLA had simulated assaults on Taiwan in designated areas to the north, southwest and east of the island on Saturday.

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