TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China will hold two days of live-fire drills off the coast of Fujian Province across from Taiwan, reports said Thursday (Aug. 25).

After United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei Aug. 2-3, China launched large-scale military maneuvers, including the firing of missiles over Taiwan, while it continued to send warplanes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait.

The latest round of live-fire drills is scheduled for Friday (Aug. 26) and Saturday (Aug. 27) between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. off the coast of Fujian near Fuqing and Putian, across the Taiwan Strait from north Taiwan, CNA reported. Ships are banned from entering the area during those times, according to a statement by the Chinese province’s Maritime Safety Administration.

Live-fire tests took place in the same area on July 30, before Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, CNA reported. China has since then conducted large-scale maneuvers in waters all along its coast, while stepping up the number of jets it sends across the median line of the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The exercises are taking place two days after a meeting between the head of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) and Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言), who is in China on a controversial visit meant to end the confrontation.

Hsia called for the resumption of communication and exchanges between the two sides during the visit, despite China's repeated military threats and drills. Zhang justified the drills as a "countermeasure against external forces that support separatist forces advocating Taiwan independence."