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China announces extension of military drills around Taiwan

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – China announced Monday it will extend the military exercises it has been conducting around Taiwan, in what it said was a response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week, the Associated Press reports.

China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) is understood to have been angered by Pelosi’s visit, viewing it in terms of US support for Taiwan, a self-governing island that China has claimed as its own territory since the two nations were separated in 1949 after a civil war.

The Chinese military drills have already disrupted air and shipping traffic and have raised concerns that the CCP may decide it is time to invade Taiwan, AP reports. China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, has said he would bring Taiwan under Chinese control by force if need be.

In a statement Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China would “firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, resolutely deter the U.S. from containing China with the Taiwan issue and resolutely shatter the Taiwan authorities’ illusion of “relying on the U.S. for independence.”

Responding to China’s actions and its announcement on Monday, US President Joe Biden told reporters in Delaware: “I’m not worried, but I’m concerned they’re moving as much as they are. But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more than they are.”