Military sirens have been activated in the Chinese province of Fujian amid repeated warnings from Beijing against Ms Pelosi making a trip to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
A video taken by a resident of Fujian captures the moment the alarms began sounding.
Late on Tuesday, the US speaker’s plane touched down in Taiwan where she is expected to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen.
China’s military has been on high alert in response to the US visit to the region with warplanes having buzzed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait
The United States said on Monday it would not be intimidated by what it called Chinese “sabre rattling”.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had no comment on reports of Pelosi’s travel plans, while her office has also kept silent.
On Tuesday night, Taiwan’s tallest building, Taipei 101, lit up with messages including: “Welcome to Taiwan”, “Speaker Pelosi”, “Taiwan (heart) USA”.
With tensions already high, several Chinese warplanes flew close to the median line dividing the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, a source told Reuters.
Several Chinese warships have also sailed near the unofficial dividing line since Monday, the source said.
Meanwhile, four US warships, including an aircraft carrier, were positioned in waters east of Taiwan on what the US Navy called routine deployments.
The carrier USS Ronald Reagan had transited the South China Sea and was currently in the Philippines Sea, east of Taiwan and the Philippines and south of Japan, a U.S. Navy official told Reuters.
It was operating with a guided missile cruiser, USS Antietam, and a destroyer, USS Higgins. The amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli was also in the area.
Since last week, China’s People’s Liberation Army has conducted various exercises, including live fire drills, in the South China Sea, Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, in a show of Chinese military might.
