Is Washington testing Beijing’s red lines?

Only 12 days after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, a US congressional delegation arrived for an unannounced visit to the island on Monday.

According to the Taiwanese media, the new five-member delegation arrived for the talks, but details of the meeting were not immediately released.

Nancy Pelosi drew the ire of China when she became the first US speaker to visit in 25 years at a time when Washington-Beijing relations have been especially tense.

Taiwan hailed the delegation's visit as another sign of warm ties between Taipei and Washington.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its sincere welcome (to the delegation)," the ministry said in a statement Sunday.

Meanwhile, China announced more military drills around Taiwan as the delegation arrived in Taiwan, threatening to renew tensions between Beijing and Washington, adds AP.

Pelosi was the highest-level member of the US government to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and her trip prompted nearly two weeks of threatening military exercises by China.

In those drills, 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.

Also, following the US legislators’ arrival, state news agency Xinhua published a commentary with the headline ‘US politicians should stop playing with fire on Taiwan question’.

"Those US politicians who are playing with fire on the Taiwan question should drop their wishful thinking," the agency said.