With dozens of warplanes of various types, the simulation of an attack by Chinese forces on the Taiwanas a warning after the meeting of the president of Taiwan with the speaker of the US House.

Republican congressman and chairman of the House Committee on Taiwan Mike Gallagher said “we should take China’s threat very seriously,” adding that “it is clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to reunify Taiwan with the mainland China”.

“We need to move heaven and earth to strengthen our deterrence and denial posture so that Xi Jinping concludes that he simply cannot do it,” said Gallagher, who was present at the president’s meeting of the American House with the president of Taiwan.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said it was monitoring the movements of China’s missile forces, while the US said it had put its forces in the area on alert.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent 70 warplanes, including fighter jets, reconnaissance and resupply planes, into Taiwan’s air defense reconnaissance zone on Sunday morning, Taiwan’s defense ministry said. According to the statement, 31 planes crossed the median line – the de facto border in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China.

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Chinese state television reported that several units carried out simulated strikes on key targets in Taiwan and the surrounding sea.

A Taiwanese security source told Reuters that on Saturday Chinese exercises around the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines, included simulated attacks on aircraft carrier groups as well as anti-submarine exercises.

The US mission in Taiwan said on Sunday that the USA closely monitor China’s exercises around Taiwan. US communication channels with China remain open and the US has consistently called for restraint and no change to the status quo, said a spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan, which functions as an embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.

China, which has never shied away from using force to bring the island under its control, says Taiwan is the most important and sensitive issue in its relations with the US. China has over the past three years or so stepped up its military pressure against Taiwan, conducting regular missions around the island, though not in its territorial airspace or over the island itself.

Chinese state media reported that the aircraft that flew into the ADIZ this weekend were armed with active missiles. Taiwanese aircraft also carry active weapons when trying to see off Chinese incursions.