A day after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi returned from a 24-hour visit to Taiwan, China launched its largest military exercise around the island nation, which Chinese state media dubbed a "rehearsal for the reunification process."

Chinese state media said the live-fire drills in six areas around Taiwan got underway at noon local time on Thursday and will continue until the same time on Sunday. It said the exercises, the largest ever by China in the Taiwan Strait, would include live firing on the waters and in the airspace surrounding Taiwan.

The Chinese state media further stated, "During this actual combat exercises, six major areas around the island were selected and during this period all ships and aircraft should not enter the relevant sea areas and airspace.”

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense confirmed the launches, identifying them as Dongfeng-class ballistic missiles. It said the weapons were fired into waters to the northeast and southwest of Taiwan at about 1:56 pm local time and condemned the exercises as “irrational actions that undermine regional peace”.

The last time China fired missiles into waters around Taiwan was in 1996.