China's ambitions reach beyond island, Taiwan says

Officials of the self-governing island, which China claims as its own, said Tuesday that China's military exercises in the Taiwan Strait are not just oriented toward taking back control of Taiwan. They show ambition to control much of the western Pacific. Taiwan's military conducted its own live-fire drills Tuesday morning to demonstrate its ability to fight back against an invasion. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said China's drills were long in the making, but U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island provided a pretext for launching them. What does the United States say? While Taiwan's statements betray a…