China began a second day of drills around Taiwan on Sunday as the island's defence ministry reported multiple air force sorties and said it was monitoring the movement of China's missile forces, as the United States said it was watching too.
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, began three days of military exercises around the island on Saturday, the day after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a brief visit to the United States.
While a security source told Reuters most of Saturday's activities ended by sundown, Taiwan's defence ministry said they had resumed on Sunday and the island's military had spotted multiple aircraft including Su-30 and J-11 fighters, as well as ships.
"Regarding the movements of the Chinese communists' Rocket Force, the nation's military also has a close grasp through the joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system, and air defence forces remain on high alert," the ministry said.
The People's Liberation Army's Rocket Force is in charge of China's land-based missile system.
Last August, following a visit to Taipei by then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China staged war games around Taiwan including firing missiles into waters close to the island, though it has yet to announce similar drills this time.
While in Los Angeles last week, on what was officially billed a transit on her way back from Central America, Tsai met the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, despite Beijing's warnings against it.
The de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan said on Sunday that the United States was monitoring China's drills around Taiwan closely and is "comfortable and confident" it has sufficient resources and capabilities regionally to ensure peace and stability.
U.S. channels of communication with China remain open and the United States had consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo, said a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as an embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favour of Beijing in 1979 but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, says Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in its relations with the United States, and the topic is a frequent source of tensions.
Beijing considers Tsai a separatist and has rebuffed her repeated calls for talks. Tsai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.The three-day drills, announced the day after Tsai returned from the United States, had been widely expected after China condemned her Wednesday meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
Beijing’s announcement also came just hours after China hosted a visit by senior European leaders.
The People’s Liberation Army said it had started the combat readiness patrols and “Joint Sword” exercises around Taiwan, having said earlier it would be holding them in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of Taiwan “as planned”.
“This is a serious warning to the Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces’ collusion and provocation, and it is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Chinese army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement.
China was using Tsai’s US visit “as an excuse to carry out military exercises, which has seriously damaged regional peace, stability and security”, the ministry said in a statement.
“The military will respond with a calm, rational and serious attitude, and will stand guard and monitor in accordance with the principles of ‘not escalating nor disputes’ to defend national sovereignty and national security.”
Chinese state media released what it said was footage of the drills, set to stirring martial music and showing warships at sea and fighter jets. China continued its intense military drills on the second consecutive day, encircling Taiwan on Sunday with fighter jets and warships simulating strikes on the island, officials and local media reported.
Dubbed "military sword," the exercises, which were launched on Saturday in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California last week, include rehearsing an encirclement of Taiwan.
The three-day drills, launched hours after the departure of French President Emmanuel Macron from China on Saturday, will run until Monday.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said that at least nine warships and 58 fighter jets were detected taking part in the exercises, which have invited condemnation from Taipei and Washington.
On Saturday, nine ships and more than 70 aircraft took part in the drills around the island.
The ministry, in a statement, said it is monitoring Chinese military movements through "joint intelligence."
Beijing, for its part, said the operations are necessary for "safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
"These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking 'Taiwan independence' and external forces and against their provocative activities," said Shi Yin, a spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
The Taiwanese president has denounced the drills.
She pledged to work with "the US and other like-minded countries" in the face of what she said continued authoritarian expansionism.
The US State Department said that Washington has "consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo."
On Monday, the drills will include live-fire drills off the rocky coast of China's Fujian province, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Taiwan's Matsu Islands and 186 kilometers (115 miles) from Taipei.
China views self-ruled Taiwan as its territory.
In its largest show of force in years in August last year, China deployed warships, missiles, and fighter jets around Taiwan following a trip to the island by McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi.