China's military exercises in six zones around Taiwan were a dress rehearsal for a military invasion operation on the island, and Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei only served as an occasion, said the head of Taiwan's diplomacy Joseph Wu.

From Thursday to Sunday, China conducted its largest-ever military drills targeting Taiwan, using live ammunition and firing ballistic missiles. During the exercises, Chinese planes and ships violated the demarcation line more than a hundred times and practically blocked all sea and air ports of Taiwan for four days. As soon as it finished the large-scale military exercises, China started new ones, with a smaller scale, and Taiwan also reacted, which these days conducts regular exercises to defend against a possible Chinese landing.

– China used military exercises to gain experience for an actual invasion of Taiwan. It is conducting large-scale military exercises, accompanied by missile launches, cyber attacks, spreading disinformation and economic suppression, as an attempt to break public morale in Taiwan - said Minister Wu.

The head of Taipei's diplomacy emphasized that the operation was prepared carefully and for a long time, and not in haste, as a reaction to the visit of the speaker of the US House of Representatives.

- The hawks at the top of the Chinese Communist Party are probably happy about Pelosi's visit to Taipei. Mrs. Pelosi opened a window for them and they took advantage of it - assessed Stephen Macdonald from the BBC.

Minister Wu argued that China's tactics, including ballistic missile launches, are to discourage other countries from interfering with Beijing's plans to invade Taiwan.

- China's real goal is to disrupt the status quo situation both in the Taiwan Strait and in the entire region - said Wu.

He adds that with the eventual seizure of the island, China would secure control of the most used sea route in the world, from the Yellow Sea in the North to the South China Sea in the South.

- China has taken targeted actions across the long-respected separation line, and is now likely to seek to regularly violate the agreement in principle. But Beijing's ambitions will not end here - said Minister Wu, referring to the cooperation agreements that Beijing concludes with the Pacific islands, as well as with countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Beijing considers Taiwan an integral part of China and has announced that it will reintegrate it by peaceful means or by force if necessary, in contrast to Washington's support for the Taipei authorities to defend independence.

Wu warned that Taiwan is closely monitoring China's drills and defending itself against persistent cyber attacks, which he said are coming "from China and from Russia."

- They will neither panic nor defeat us. No one can take away the values ​​of freedom and democracy from us - said Wu.

Even before Pelosi's visit to Taipei, civil defense drills were conducted in Taiwan, testing alert systems. Regular military exercises, like every year at this time, include a landing repulse, using live ammunition.

China's Eastern Wing Command, meanwhile, announced that the new exercises focus on anti-submarine operations and attacks on ships. No airspace avoidance warnings were issued.