China announces new drills as US delegation visits Taiwan

China announced more military drills around Taiwan as the self-governing island's president met with members of a new U.S. congressional delegation on Monday, threatening to renew tensions between Beijing and Washington just days after a similar visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China.

Pelosi was the highest-level member of the U.S. government to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and her trip prompted nearly two weeks of threatening military exercises by China, which claims the island as its own.

Beijing fired missiles over the island and into the Taiwan Strait and sent warplanes and navy ships across the waterway's midline, which has long been a buffer between the sides that split amid civil war in 1949.

The new exercises were intended to be "resolute response and solemn deterrent against collusion and provocation between the U.S. and Taiwan," the Defence Ministry said earlier.

It was not clear if the new drills had already started since the ministry gave no details about where and when they would be conducted, in contrast to previous rounds.

This week's five-member congressional delegation planned to meet with both government and private sector representatives.