The US-Korean military exercises are the largest in years, and Taipei reminds China of the results of the second Taiwan Strait crisis

South Korea and the United States began joint military exercises described as the largest in years, amid increased military activity in the Asia and the Pacific, while Taiwan said it deterred the Chinese army six decades ago, when its forces bombed two Taiwanese islands.

Pentagon spokesman Martin Miners told Al Jazeera that the goal of the exercises with Seoul is to strengthen the alliance between the two countries and the security and stability of the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said that the US-South Korean military exercises on the Korean Peninsula are provocative tactics of the US and its allies.

The Russian official indicated that Washington intends to deploy strategic forces on the Korean Peninsula in the event that North Korea conducts a new nuclear test, and that this will cause more tension.

Patrushev's secretary also accused the United States of seeking to impose sanctions on China, and likened Washington's policy toward Taiwan and China to its policy in Ukraine.

For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it was the United States that changed the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, trampled on China's red lines and destroyed the relationship between Beijing and Washington.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Washington is running what it described as gunboat diplomacy on China's doorstep, yet it sought to demonize its legitimate responses.

The ministry added that it was Washington that carried out the provocations first, imposing a crisis on the Chinese people that could have been avoided.

Taiwan: We are determined to defend ourselves

Meanwhile, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told a visiting group of US academics Tuesday that the island deterred the Chinese army six decades ago, when its forces bombed two Taiwanese islands, and that the determination to defend the homeland continues today.

Tensions between Taiwan and China escalated over the past month following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei.

China held war games near Taiwan to express its anger at what it saw as an increase in US support for the island, which Beijing regards as a sovereign Chinese territory.

While meeting with a delegation from Stanford University's Hoover Institution in her office, Tsai recalled the month-long attacks by China on the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen and Matsu islands off the Chinese coast that began in August 1958.

"64 years ago during the battle of August 23, our soldiers and civilians worked together, protecting Taiwan so that we have democratic Taiwan today," she said.

"The battle to protect our homeland showed the world that no threat of any kind could shake the Taiwan people's determination to defend their nation, not in the past, not now, and not in the future," she added.

"We will also show the world that the people of Taiwan have the determination and confidence at the same time to safeguard peace, security, freedom and prosperity for ourselves," she said.

In 1958, Taiwan resisted the attack with the support of the United States, which sent military hardware such as the Sidewinder advanced anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological advantage.

This crisis is often referred to as the "Second Taiwan Strait Crisis," and was the last time Taiwanese forces engaged in large-scale combat with China.

The United States, which abandoned formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, remains Taiwan's most important arms exporter.

Taiwan's government says that because China has never ruled the island, it has no right to claim it or decide its future, something only Taiwan's 23 million people can determine.