China on Wednesday reacted sharply to US lawmakers' Taiwan visit as relations between Beijing and Taipei continue to drop, marked by aggressive military posturing from both sides.
"China urged US lawmakers to stop colluding with secessionists on the island of Taiwan; such tactics will eventually backfire. Any challenge and dangerous move on China's reunification is doomed to fail," said Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin during a press briefing.
The Chinese military on Tuesday conducted a combat readiness patrol near the Taiwan Straits as a US transport plane, carrying a group of American senators and representatives, landed in Taiwan on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), said that the PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted a joint combat readiness patrol near the Taiwan Straits to "further improve the joint combat capability of multiple military services and branches."
The Taiwan Focus reported that the trip of US senators was arranged by the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the de facto US embassy in the country.
This visit comes amid escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Recently, Taiwan has been witnessing increasing Chinese military aggression. Last month, China's military sent a record number of warplanes into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ).
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan despite the separate two sides being governed separately for more than seven decades. Taipei continues to counter the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US.
Back in October, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng had said that Beijing might consider mounting a full-scale invasion of the island by 2025.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor