In a huge military exercise, China encircles Taiwan with warships and fighter jets.

 In retaliation for Taiwan's president meeting with the speaker of the US House of Representatives this week, China on Saturday sent out warships and fighter jets to encircle Taiwan.

US stopover and meeting with House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, this week.

In retaliation for Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's visit to the US this week and meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Saturday sent out warships and fighter jets to encircle the independent island of Taiwan.

The Taiwanese defence ministry reported that at least eight Chinese warships and 42 fighter jets were spotted in the area of the island on Saturday. In addition, 29 jets entered Taiwan's southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the most this year in a single day, according to information gathered by AFP.

The three-day drill, between April 8 and 10, is expected

The Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the Chinese mainland, was "encircled" from the north, south, and east by "combat alert patrols" launched by the Chinese PLA's eastern theatre command (ETC) as part of the "Joint Sword" drills.

Long-range rockets, artillery, destroyers, frigates, missile boats, fighters, bombers, electronic warfare aircraft, aerial tankers, and conventional missiles are all included in the PLA's deployment around Taiwan.

The three-day exercise, which will take place between April 8 and 10, is anticipated to be the biggest PLA military exercise since August 2022, when Chinese armed forces similarly surrounded the island of fewer than 24 million people and responded to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei by firing missiles and detonating bombs.