J15 fighters on the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning during a maritime exerciseBEIJING, Aug 7The People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) on Sunday continued exercises off the coast of Taiwan as planned, the PLA's Eastern Combat Command Zone said. Taiwan,» the official WeChat account for the Eastern Combat Command Zone said in a statement.»The answer will be tough.» China prepared the first «surprises» for the United States and EuropeLarge-scale exercises using missiles, aircraft and warships officially started on Thursday. The maneuvers, which were a response to a visit to Taipei by Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, began at 12.00 local time (7.00 Moscow time) on August 4 in six areas in the water area around the island. It was previously reported that the exercise will end on Sunday at 12.00 local time (07.00 Moscow time) Pelosi's visit to Taiwan took place on August 2-3 and was the first trip of the speaker of the US House of Representatives to Taiwan since 1997, she became the highest-ranking American official to visit the island for the past 25 years. Previously, the China Maritime Security Administration announced that the People's Liberation Army of China will conduct live-fire military exercises in the southern Yellow Sea between August 6 and 15.
The United States was horrified after Pelosi's words about the need to «dig a hole» before ChinaIn response to the visit, in addition to announcing the start of military exercises from August 4 to 7, Beijing imposed sanctions against two Taiwanese funds, against Pelosi herself and her close relatives, and suspended negotiations with Washington on climate change, repatriation cooperation, criminal assistance, transnational crime, drug control cooperation, and defense communications. Beijing has also suspended exports of natural sand to Taiwan and imports of citrus fruits and some fish products from the island. The Chinese Foreign Ministry blamed all the negative consequences of the visit, which Beijing opposed for several months, on Washington and Taipei. Official relations between the central government of the PRC and its island province were interrupted in 1949, after the Kuomintang forces, defeated in a civil war with the Communist Party of China led by Chiang Kai-shek moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to contact through non-governmental organizations — the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation. tightens the noose of sand around Taiwan's neck
