Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen at an event with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on April 5, 2023.
China began three days of military exercises around Taiwan on Saturday to express anger at Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, as the island's defense ministry said it would respond calmly.
The drills, announced the day after Tsai returned from the United States, had been widely expected after China condemned the meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
China was using Tsai's U.S. visit "as an excuse to carry out military exercises, which has seriously damaged regional peace, stability and security," the ministry said in a statement.