Taipei, - (AFP) - Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday that the Taiwanese people are committed to defending the island in the wake of China's massive military maneuvers.

Tensions in the Taiwan Strait have risen to their highest level in years since Beijing staged unprecedented military exercises in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei earlier this month.

Tsai's remarks came while receiving a US delegation on the 64th anniversary of the Chinese bombing campaign on the small island of Kinmen, known as the "823 bombing."

"This fight to protect our homeland has shown the world that no threat of any kind can shake the Taiwanese people's determination to defend their nation, neither in the past, nor now nor in the future," Tsai said.

The Chinese army fired 470,000 shells at Kinmen and nearby islets in 1958, killing 618 people in an attack that lasted 44 days.

Autonomous Beijing fears military action from China, which considers the island part of its territory and has vowed to re-annex it one day, by force if necessary.

Beijing rejects any diplomatic action that would legitimize Taiwan and has reacted with growing anger at visits by Western officials and politicians to the island.

Over the course of a week after Pelosi's visit, Beijing sent warships, launched ballistic missiles and fighter jets into the waters and airspace around Taiwan.

Taiwan has accused China of using the visit as a pretext to launch exercises that could amount to rehearsals for an invasion.