U.S., China conducting multiple military exercises near Taiwan

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — The U.S. and China have conducted numerous exercises in the Pacific over the past few weeks, stoking fears of a looming confrontation over Taiwan.<br /><br />Over the last three weeks, China has announced four separate military exercises in the Bohai Gulf, the East Sea, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.<br /><br />The People's Liberation Army also held major exercises near Taiwan in mid-August "to safeguard national sovereignty." Taiwan took the unusual step of announcing its surface-to-air missiles had tracked approaching Chinese fighters as U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar visited the country earlier this month.<br /><br />On Tuesday, August 25, Beijing accused the U.S. of sending a U-2 spy plane to "trespass" on live-fire exercises being conducted by China in the Yellow Sea that same day, according to the state-run Global Times.<br /><br />On August 15, Washington sailed the USS Mustin destroyer through the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said, just days after a strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan conducted operations in the South China Sea.<br /><br />In the latest salvo on Wednesday, August 26, China test-fired two missiles, including a "carrier killer" DF-26B, from Qinghai and Zhejiang provinces into the sea between Hainan and the Paracel Islands, according to a report in the Associated Press.