Taiwan has reported numerous drone flights on islets it controls close to the Chinese coast since China started war games and military maneuvers near Taiwan earlier this month following the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Chinese-claimed island.
On Chinese social media, footage from at least two of these drone operations has gone viral. In one, soldiers from Taiwan can be seen hurling rocks in its direction.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, claimed to have viewed the video at a regular briefing. "Chinese drones flying about Chinese territory, this is not something to make a fuss about," he said.
Taiwan's accusations of frequent drone harassment very close to Taiwanese-controlled islands were ignored by China, leading Taipei to call Beijing nothing more than a thief.
The foreign ministry of Taiwan voiced its anger at his remarks.
The people of Taiwan do not welcome such criminals, it claimed, regardless of whether they enter through the door or peep from above. "There is an ancient Chinese saying that 'uninvited people are called thieves,'" it stated.
The tiny Lion Islet, which is a member of the Kinmen group of islands and is located next to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, was the site of a new drone intrusion, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry on Monday. It claimed that after a minute, it flew off in the direction of Xiamen after soldiers fired flares to scare it away.
While John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, declined to confirm reports of the drones, he did tell reporters that China was still trying to establish a "new normal" for its behavior toward Taiwan, including by sailing ships and flying aircraft over the unofficial median line in the Taiwan Strait.
"They're trying to turn up the temperature to a degree where it becomes sort of this new normal," Kirby said. "We're not going to accept it."
Although it has been making similar passages every month, two US Navy vessels navigated across international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday. This was the first operation since Pelosi's visit.
Since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists, Taiwan has ruled Kinmen and the Matsu islands higher up China's coast. Only a few hundred meters separate Kinmen from Chinese-controlled territory at its closest point. China has promised to conquer Taiwan, using force if necessary.
