China Holds Military Drills Around Taiwan in ‘Stern Warning’

China began three days of military exercises around Taiwan on Saturday in what it called a “stern warning,” after the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, met earlier in the week with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in a show of Taiwanese-U.S. solidarity. The authorities also announced a live-fire exercise on waters near Pingtan, an island just off the Chinese coast facing Taiwan. Last year, Beijing fired missiles into waters around Taiwan and held days of exercises simulating a blockade of the island. “Unless they really pull out the stops, I don’t think it will sway electoral trends,” he said of China’s military exercises. The Chinese military Eastern Theater Command said that the exercises would involve frigates, missile-launching boats, fighter jets, bombers and other weaponry.