The Ministry of Defense in Taiwan announced new Chinese military movements in the vicinity of the island, while Beijing published pictures of naval exercises of its forces.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said - in a statement - that Chinese planes penetrated today, Saturday, the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which is considered an unofficial border between the two sides.
The ministry added that today it detected 6 ships and 29 aircraft in the eastern part of the Mediterranean line.
Meanwhile, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said during an election rally in the south of the country that China is intimidating her country, adding that the Taiwan government and military are ready to face threats.
After a week of maneuvers described as the largest of their kind in the vicinity of Taiwan in response to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, the pace of Chinese military activity around the island decreased, according to Reuters.
However, Washington stressed that Taiwan was still surrounded by Chinese warships, and urged Beijing to break the naval cordon off Taiwan.
In the midst of the recent tension, which raised fears of a military escalation, Taiwan held military exercises in anticipation of a military move against it by China, which considers it an integral part of its territory.
special exercises
For its part, Chinese TV published today, Saturday, on its website, scenes that it said were from special exercises for ships belonging to a naval base in the Southern Command of the Chinese Army in the South China Sea, for a period of 4 days.
Chinese TV confirmed that the exercises focus on air defense and anti-missile defense to test the performance of weapons and equipment and refine the capabilities of the forces, as he put it.
And the senior adviser to the US President on Asian affairs, Kurt Campbell, announced yesterday that the United States will conduct sea and air transit operations in the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks, despite the escalation of tension between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.
Campbell said that those operations include conducting regular sea and air transit operations.
In response to the announcement, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry on Saturday thanked Washington for taking concrete measures to maintain security in the Strait and the region.
Washington accused Beijing of using the US House Speaker's visit to Taiwan as an excuse to pressure it to change the status quo.
In return, China accused the United States of violating its sovereignty and seeking to contain it, and said that Washington would never be able to stop the process of unification with Taiwan.