Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te (R) meets US Senator Tammy Duckworth (L) at the Presidential Office in Taipei 

President Lai Ching-te told visiting US lawmakers Wednesday that Taiwan would work with the United States to counter "authoritarian expansionism", days after China staged major military drills around the self-ruled island.

Lai has been labelled by Beijing as a "traitor" and "saboteur of peace and stability" since the new president vowed to defend the island's sovereignty and democracy in his inaugural speech on May 20.

Three days after he was sworn into office, warships and fighter jets encircled Taiwan in drills China said was "punishment" for Lai's "confession of Taiwan independence" and a test of its ability to seize control of the island.

China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and says it will never renounce the use of force to bring it under Beijing's control.

Speaking Wednesday to the first bipartisan delegation from the US Senate to visit since his inauguration, Lai appealed for continued support from the island's most powerful ally.

"Facing the challenge of the pandemic, we supported one another. Now facing authoritarian expansionism, we continue to work together," Lai said.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to do all we can to safeguard democracy so that democratic Taiwan can continue to shine its light upon the world."

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran and head of the delegation, responded by telling Lai "you can count on us to always show up for Taiwan".

Duckworth also announced she would be joining Republican Senator Dan Sullivan's "Stand With Taiwan Act", a bill to impose economic, energy and financial sanctions on China in the event of military invasion or other use of force against Taiwan.

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"I hope (I am) the first Democratic senator on that bill and I hope he would be able to introduce that when we get back to Washington," she said.

Sullivan said Duckworth's weigh-in was "a huge outcome of our trip to Taiwan already".

He added that their visit underlined "our rock-solid, principled bipartisan support for Taiwan".

The delegation, which was also joined by the Democratic Party's Chris Coons and Laphonza Butler, was the second group of US lawmakers Lai received this week.

On Monday, Lai met with a six-member delegation from the US House of Representatives.

China's foreign ministry criticised that as a "sneaky visit", which was "sending a seriously wrong signal to the separatist force of Taiwan independence".

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Taiwan reports renewed Chinese military activity less than week after war games end

Taiwan reported renewed Chinese military activity nearby on Wednesday, saying China's warships and warplanes were carrying out "joint combat readiness patrols", less than a week after Beijing ended two days of war games.

China said it carried out the war games that started last Thursday as "punishment" for President Lai Ching-te's inauguration speech last week, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were "not subordinate to each other". China saw this as a declaration the two are separate countries.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Lai rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

Taiwan's defence ministry said that from 3:20pm (0720 GMT) on Wednesday it had detected 28 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighters, operating around Taiwan and carrying out "joint combat readiness patrols" in conjunction with warships.

Eighteen of the Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line or areas nearby, and flew into airspace to the north, centre and southwest of Taiwan, the ministry said.

Speaking to reporters at parliament earlier on Wednesday, Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said the aim of China's drills last week was not to go to war.

"The purpose of the military exercises was to intimidate," he said.

The drills were meant to show an external and domestic audience that Beijing "has absolute control over the situation in the Taiwan Strait", Tsai added.

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'JUST' WAR GAMES

In Beijing, Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, reiterated its list of complaints about Lai being a dangerous supporter of Taiwan's formal independence, and threatened continued Chinese military activity.

The drills were a "just action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity", she said.

"As Taiwan's provocations for independence continue, the People's Liberation Army's actions to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity continue."

The government in Taipei says Taiwan is already an independent country, the Republic of China. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists who set up the People's Republic of China.

China says any decisions on Taiwan's future are for all of China's 1.4 billion people to make, not only Taiwan's 23 million, and has offered a Hong Kong-style "one country, two systems" autonomy model, though that has almost no public support on the island, according to opinion polls.

"Different systems are not an obstacle to reunification, let alone an excuse for separation," Zhu said.

China has never explained how it would integrate Taiwan's vibrant democracy and direct election of its leaders into any plan to govern the island.

China has in the past four years sent its military to areas around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, as it seeks to exert pressure on the island.

But China also appeared to be trying to keep the scope of these drills contained, Tsai's bureau said in a written report to lawmakers, noting there was no declaration of no-fly or no-sail zones and the exercises lasted only two days.

"The intention was to avoid the situation escalating and international intervention, but in the future it is feared (China) will continue its compound coercion against us, gradually changing the Taiwan Strait's status quo," it said.

Tsai added that Chinese forces mobilised almost as soon as China announced the drills early on Thursday.

"The speed was extremely fast, demonstrating rapid mobilisation capabilities," he said.

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