Chinese missile drills over and near Taiwan have launched five missiles into Japanese waters as Tokyo lodges a complaint

In the wake of Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, an island nation long claimed by China as part of its territory, China has ramped up its missile drills near the independent country.

As a show of force meant to intimidate the Taiwanese people and perhaps to show America that they are prepared for conflict, China has launched nine ballistic missiles around Taiwan in a series of drills. Five of these nine missiles have landed in Japan’s waters in their Exclusive Economic Zone.

The consequence of these missile drills over the island nation of Taiwan is that it effectively blockades both in aerial and naval terms. In response, the Taiwanese Defense Minister has activated their defensive systems and put the nation on high alert.

Meanwhile, Japan has lodged a formal protest with Beijing due to the missiles that have landed in their waters.

Both nations express their grievances with China as the aggressive nation’s military exercises and missile drills are to continue until Sunday. A slight miscalculation causing a missile to land on Japanese or Taiwanese soil would mean war and could lead to a global conflict.

If Japan, an observer party and staunch ally of the United States, was to incidentally be hit by a Chinese missile, there is a near guarantee of global conflict. Japan’s closest island territory is only 70 miles off the coast of Taiwan, and Chinese missiles have already landed in the nearby waters.

China has also scrambled jets and moved advanced warships into the area surrounding Taiwan as if rehearsing for invasion. This invokes the same mobilization of troops by Putin’s Russia at Ukraine’s border, which led to the ongoing conflict.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is vying for reconfirmation and a third term as leader of China’s autocratic Communist Party. He has long claimed that he would unite China and Taiwan under Communist rule, despite Taiwan never having been ruled by the CCP before. To him, this show of strength is as important to the ranks of his own party as it is to the world.

There is no consensus on if and when China will invade Taiwan. However, the US seems at this time to not be overly concerned with the possibility. The effective blockade around Taiwan during the missile exercises is being blamed, by the Chinese Communists, on Pelosi’s visit. However, China was also increasing its aggression toward Taiwan before the announcement of her visit.

Pelosi was the first high-ranking US official since Newt Gingrich in 1997 to visit Taiwan.