Since communist China and Taiwan separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the strait separating them has become a geopolitical point of tension.

The strait, which is only 130 km wide at its narrowest point, is a major international channel for shipping goods and everything that separates democratic, self-governing Taiwan from its giant authoritarian neighbour.

On Saturday, Beijing began a three-day military exercise in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing- wen's visit to the United States, where she met US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.

China described the exercises as a "severe warning" to "separatist forces" who want Taiwan independence in collusion with foreign powers.
Beijing reacted angrily to a visit by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to the island, making mounting threats and announcing a series of military exercises in the waters around the island.

Analysts had said Tsai's meeting with McCarthy in the United States could anger Beijing and lead to a show of force.
Historians talk about three previous crises in the Taiwan Strait.

At the end of the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong's communist forces expelled the Chiang Kai-shek nationalists who had moved to Taiwan.

The two rivals settled on opposite sides of the strait, the People's Republic of China on the mainland and the Republic of China on Taiwan.
The first Straits Crisis erupted in August 1954 when the Nationalists sent thousands of soldiers to the small Taiwanese-ruled islands of Kinmen and Matsu, just a few kilometers from the mainland.

Communist China responded with artillery bombardment of the two islands and succeeded in capturing the Yijiangshan Islands, 400 km north of Taipei.

The spark was eventually extinguished, but it almost brought China and the United States to the brink of direct conflict.
Fighting broke out again in 1958 when Mao's forces massively bombed the islands of Kinmen and Matsu in a new effort to expel the Nationalist forces stationed there.

Fearing that the loss of the two islands would lead to the collapse of the Nationalists and thus Beijing's control of Taiwan, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered his forces to accompany their Taiwanese allies and provide them with supplies.

At one point, the United States briefly considered deploying nuclear weapons against China.

Beijing declared a cease-fire due to its inability to seize the islands and the failure of the bombing operations to subdue the Nationalists.

However, Mao's forces continued to bomb Kinmen intermittently until 1979 in a stalemate.
37 years after the second crisis, the third came.

In the intervening decades, both China and Taiwan have changed dramatically.

After Mao's death, China remained under the control of the Communist Party, but it embarked on a period of reform and opening up to the world.

For its part, Taiwan is beginning to shake off the authoritarian years of Chiang Kai-shek's rule and transition to a progressive democracy, while many embrace a distinctly Taiwanese rather than Chinese identity.

Tensions flared up again in 1995 when China began test-firing missiles in the waters surrounding Taiwan in protest of Taiwanese President Lee Tin Hui's visit to his university in the United States.

Beijing hated me especially because he was in favor of declaring Taiwan an independent state.

More missile tests were conducted a year later while Taiwan held its first direct presidential elections.
The steps backfired.

The United States sent two aircraft carrier groups to push China back, while Li won the election by a large margin.

A year later, Newt Gingrich became the first speaker of the US House of Representatives to visit Taiwan in an unprecedented move, and Pelosi followed suit 25 years later.

It took more than 25 years before the next Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, headed to Taiwan.

China responded by launching its largest-ever air and naval exercise, sending warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around the island.

Taipei condemned the exercises and missile tests as preparation for an invasion.

Less than a year later, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen arrived in Los Angeles to meet with McCarthy, kicking off another round of Chinese military exercises.