China announced that it conducted drills around Taiwan on Friday while a U.S. delegation visits the island. The People's Liberation Army stated that the maneuver targets the "misleading signals" sent by the United States. According to official Chinese state television, the spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, Shi Yi Lou, reported that the Chinese military dispatched frigates, bombers, and fighter jets to the East China Sea and the area surrounding Taiwan on Friday. Shi stated, "This operation is a response to the repeated misleading signals from the United States regarding Taiwan recently."
During a meeting on Friday with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez remarked that Taiwan is "a country of global significance," and its security has implications for the entire world. Menendez was part of a delegation consisting of six bipartisan U.S. congressional members visiting Taiwan to express support amid Chinese pressures. These visits and the reference to Taiwan as a "country" anger Beijing, which rejects this notion and considers the island part of its territory. The U.S. delegation arrived in Taiwan late Thursday from Australia for an unannounced two-day visit. They are scheduled to meet with Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng.
