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US-China Tensions Over Taiwan
Tensions between China and the US have escalated following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei in early August. China views Taiwan as part of its territory and says any country's interaction with Taipei is interference in China's internal affairs.

US Naval Strike Group To Prolong Stay In South China Sea As PLA Performs Drills Near Taiwan

© AP Photo / Kin CheungAn F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet is seen on the deck of the U.S. Navy USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea
An F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet is seen on the deck of the U.S. Navy USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea - Sputnik International, 1920, 05.08.2022
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The USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and its strike group entered the South China Sea on 28 July as part of what the US 7th Fleet had said was a scheduled operation against the backdrop of soaring tensions with China ahead of a Taiwan visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A US naval aircraft carrier strike group will remain in the South China Sea for longer than originally planned, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced at the White House on Thursday.
The USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, along with its strike group, will remain in the area near Taiwan “to monitor the situation” as China demonstrated its long-range missile capabilities by firing at least 11 missiles around the island on Thursday.
President Joe Biden “believed that it was the prudent thing to do, to leave her and her escort ships there for just a little bit longer,” Kirby stated.
At the same time, the Pentagon will postpone a previously scheduled test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to avoid adding to the already tense situation, added the spokesman.
“As China engages in destabilizing military exercises around Taiwan, the United States is demonstrating instead the behavior of a responsible nuclear power, by reducing the risks of miscalculation and misperception,” Kirby said during a briefing.
He added that the US expected “more exercises, more bellicosity and rhetoric, and we’re expecting more incursions into non-Chinese territories”.
In spite of heightened tensions, Kirby came out with the cryptic utterance that the US and China are maintaining "open lines of communication, and I think you’ll see that in days to come as well".
The ICBM test, scheduled to take place this week at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, is being delayed for a short period, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier.
In this April 12, 2018 photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by navy frigates and submarines conducting an exercises in the South China Sea - Sputnik International, 1920, 04.08.2022
US-China Tensions Over Taiwan
Kremlin: China's Military Exercises Off Taiwan Its Sovereign Right
Tensions have rocketed between Washington and Beijing in the past week largely because of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to visit Taiwan with a delegation of congressional Democrats on 2 August.
Beijing views Taipei - governed independently since breaking from mainland China in 1949 - as an inalienable part of China, which will reunite with the mainland someday.
Officially, the United States supports mainland China’s claim to the island, dubbed the One-China Policy.
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers training at their barracks in Heihe, northeast China's Heilongjiang province - Sputnik International, 1920, 04.08.2022
Asia
Pelosi's Taiwan Trip: How China Could Wreak Vengeance on Taipei & Washington
Before Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, US President Joe Biden, in talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had reiterated this commitment. Xi had warned Biden about the possible negative consequences of Pelosi's visit.
Nevertheless, in an apparent snub to the warnings, the controversial high-profile diplomatic visit took place, prompting China to unleash a series of unprecedented live fire drills in six locations around Taiwan on 4 August.
China's official Xinhua news agency reported that the military "flew more than 100 warplanes including fighters and bombers" during the exercises, as well as "more than 10 destroyers and frigates."
Neither Beijing nor Taipei have yet confirmed whether the missiles flew over the islands during the drills, but Japan's defense ministry said that of the nine missiles it had detected, four were "believed to have flown over Taiwan's main island".
"Our exercises this time included live-firing tests, and it was the first time they crossed Taiwan island," Meng Xiangqing, a professor at China's military-affiliated National Defence University, was cited as saying by state broadcaster CCTV.
The latest drills are the closest the PLA has come to the island and its first encirclement, Meng added.
After the announcement of Chinese exercises off the coast of Taiwan, the US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan retreated from the island by "hundreds of kilometers", Meng told the broadcaster.
The drills, which have sparked outrage from the US, Japan, the European Union, as well as Taipei, are expected to continue until midday Sunday.
China has defended the live-fire drills as justified countermeasures in the face of deliberate provocations by the United States and its allies.
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