Taiwan

Multiple Chinese aircraft and vessels crossed the unofficial, but so far mostly respected, centre line in the 130-km-wide Taiwan Strait separating the island from the mainland, reports dpa news agency. Taiwan's Foreign Minister Jason Wu tweeted his condemnation of what he termed a "dangerous escalation of the military threat" that was "wrecking peace & stability in the region & must be condemned". As part of its military exercises, the PLA also launched 11 ballistic missiles in Taiwan's direction, one of which flew directly over the island and passed close to the capital Taipei for the first time, according to reports.

In a statement, the Ministry said that China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces crossed the median line -- the halfway point between the island and mainland China -- in a move it called a "highly provocative act", reports CNN. The line has previously been an informal but largely respected border of control between Beijing and Taipei.

"In disregard of China's grave concerns and firm opposition, Pelosi insisted on visiting China's Taiwan region. This constitutes a gross interference in China's internal affairs," dpa news agency quoted the Ministry as saying in a statement. "It gravely undermines China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, seriously tramples on the one-China principle, and severely threatens peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Representative Gyaltsen addressed Pelosi on the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet and the increasingly extreme policy of ethnic, religious and cultural genocide in Tibet by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said the CTA.

Demanding that Beijing be "rational and self-restrained", Tsai said in a video address on Thursday night: "With China initiating military exercises in areas around Taiwan today, we call on Beijing to act with reason and exercise restraint. Taiwan will not escalate conflict, but we will resolutely defend our sovereignty, our security and our democracy."

China's eastern military command said that at about 1 p.m. (local Beijing time) units of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) "implemented long-range fire live firing training in the Taiwan Strait and conducted precise strikes on specific areas in the eastern part of the Taiwan Strait," which separates mainland China from the island, reports dpa news agency.

Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat who is a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, met Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen along with Pelosi and other members of the Congressional delegation on Wednesday in Taipei.

Pelosi also met former Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee and social activist Lee Ming-chee, both of whom had been imprisoned in China, at the Jingmei Human Rights and Culture Park south of Taipei. Lee had just returned to Taiwan from China after serving a five-year sentence for "subverting state power."

"Today, our delegation... came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear: we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, and we're proud of our enduring friendship," Pelosi said at a joint press conference with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen. "Today, the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy," Pelosi said, as she praised Taiwan as "one of the freest [democracies] in the world, proudly to be led by a woman president."

So if Pelosi's visit � a personal rebuke to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has made the takeover of Taiwan an existential quest � permanently worsens already poor US-China relations and brings forward what some see as an inevitable superpower confrontation, it might turn out to be a massive miscalculation, CNN reported.