Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said to the visiting US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he strongly condemned missile launches by China and that his government had requested Beijing to call off its military exercises immediately.
The two met for breakfast at Kishida’s official residence just hours after China likely fired missiles over Taiwan during military drills on Thursday. The show of forces was part of Beijing‘s biggest Cross Street exercise in decades after Pelosi visited the self-ruled island earlier this week
The Ministry of defense in Tokyo anticipated that five ballistic missiles landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone and four of those are likely to have flown over Taiwan. If this is confirmed, it would mark a significant escalation since it would be China’s first attempt to fire a missile over Taiwan.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the People’s Liberation Army in China shot 11 Dongfeng ballistic missiles into waters north, east, and South of Taiwan between 1:56 PM and 4 PM local time.
Beijing had earlier announced the meeting with Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi which had been expected as early as Thursday on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathering in Cambodia.