China Taiwan News LIVE Updates: China's heightened military threats have damaged the status quo, says Taiwan

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit and said that de-escalation is needed in the Taiwan Strait, as China started its military drills in the region. According to the statement released by the New Zealand government, "the Minister restated Aotearoa New Zealand's interest in peace and stability in the region, including across the Taiwan Strait, and emphasised the importance of de-escalation, diplomacy and dialogue.

As US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a brief visit to Taiwan this week that enraged Beijing, the welcome she received from government officials and the public was in sharp contrast with a different sort of message that began popping up elsewhere on the island. On Wednesday, in some branches of 7-11 convenience stores in Taiwan, the television screens behind cashiers suddenly switched to display the words: "Warmonger Pelosi, get out of Taiwan!" The largest 24-hour convenience store chain on the island was the victim of what Taiwanese authorities are calling an unprecedented amount of cyber attacks on government websites belonging to the presidential office, foreign and defence ministries as well as infrastructure such as screens at railway stations, in protest against Pelosi's visit.

As China embarks on its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei, AFP looks back at relations between the self-governing island and Beijing, which views it as part of China. Mao Zedong's communists take power in Beijing in October 1949 after defeating Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists in a civil war.

China scolded foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Thursday for telling Beijing not to use a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan as "pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait". China responded to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan earlier this week by ordering live fire military drills in the waters surrounding the self-governed island, which Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said on Thursday China "imitated" North Korea by firing missiles into waters near the island earlier in the day and called for self-restraint amid high tensions with Beijing. The ministry said in a statement China has threatened Taiwan's security and urged countries to support the democratic island and jointly defend freedom and democracy.

Taiwan cancelled airline flights Thursday as the Chinese navy fired artillery near the island in retaliation for a top American lawmaker's visit, but the impact on shipments of processor chips and other goods needed by global industries was unclear.

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Thursday the Chinese military launched missiles from near Taiwan's Matsu islands earlier in the day, adding troops on the islands will continue to enhance their alertness level. Earlier on Thursday, Reuters reported that two missiles were launched by China near the Matsu islands, which lie off the coast of China, and headed in the direction of waters off Taiwan's northeastern coasts, according to an internal Taiwan security report seen be Reuters and confirmed by a security source.