Nancy Pelosi’s potential visit has unsettled Beijing, which has made several threats to the U.S. in the past few days.
As tensions continue to grow between China and the U.S. over the potential visit of House speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan—which Beijing claims as part of its territory—Taiwanese media has reported that a Chinese missile destroyer has appeared off the coast of the self-governing island.
On Tuesday, the day Pelosi is rumored to visit the island, Taiwan’s government-controlled news agency Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the Chinese destroyer appeared off the coast of Lanyu—also known as Orchid Island.
Unspecified military sources also spoke of seeing accompanying missile frigates appearing together with the destroyer in the past two days, CNA reports.
A Chinese marine survey vessel was spotted sailing north of the island outside Hualien Port on Monday, while a Chinese research vessel was seen sailing southeast of Lanyu in the evening of the same day.
China is currently conducting military exercises in the South China Sea and the Bohai Sea, according to a statement by China’s Maritime Safety Administration on Monday, but has not officially spoken of drills close to the island of Taiwan.
