China Starts Drills Around Taiwan After US Speaker Meeting

A Chinese warship fires at a target during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China, on April 8, 2023. Thomas Peter/Reuters

FUZHOU, China/TAIPEI—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 the Chinese communist regime condemned the meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.