China staged extensive naval exercises and launched almost a dozen ballistic missiles into the waters surrounding Taiwan on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, where she promised the U.S. would not abandon the vibrant democracy amid bellicose threats from Beijing.
Her whirlwind trip to Taiwan may have been brief but it caused a hurricane of reactions, including headaches for the White House which wanted Speaker Pelosi to call off the visit.
A spokesman for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said China fired 11 Dongfeng series ballistic missiles into waters to the northeast, southwest, and east of the island.