Watch: Taiwan holds live fire military drills as tensions with China continue

Taiwan continued holding military exercises on Wednesday as it simulated fighting against an invading enemy.

Indigenous Defense Fighter jets launched flares in the air while Apache assault helicopters fired 33-millimeter chain gun and rockets covering the ground forces during the drills at the military firing range in Pingtung.

Troops also fired Javelin anti-tank weapons that have proven highly effective against Russian armour in the conflict in Ukraine.

Tensions have been running high ever since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen 2016 election and then spiked last month when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei.

China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait and over the island into the Pacific and sent ships and planes across the midline of the strait that had long been a buffer against outright conflict.

Since Pelosi's trip to Taipei, there have been at least two other congressional visits and several by governors of US states.

The US also sent a pair of guided missile cruisers through Taiwan strait in defiance of China's claims that the waterway, one of the busiest in the world, belongs to it entirely.