The PLA commenced joint maritime and aerial exercises and combat-readiness patrols in the Taiwan Straits on September 18. Taiwan's media reported concentrated PLA warplane activities near the island's "airspace" in four directions around the island on September 18 morning. They said 18 PLA warplanes - two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighter jets, four J-11 and four J-10 planes - were involved in the operation, and some of them crossed the "middle line" of the Taiwan Straits. The news comes against the backdrop of US Undersecretary of State Keith Krach's visit to Taiwan to attend the memorial service of former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui, who the official Chinese media described as the "Godfather of Taiwan secessionism." The Global Times quoted Chinese experts as saying  "the PLA operations have multiple dimensions that make secessionists on the island a turtle in a jar, and the PLA can turn the exercises into real action any time if Taiwan secessionists insist on their obduracy". Separately,  Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson at China's Ministry of National Defense, said (September 18) that "the PLA Eastern Theater Command is conducting real combat-oriented exercises near Taiwan Straits". The Mainland Chinese experts were also quoted by Global Times (September 18) as reacting to US Representative Tom Tiffany's introduced legislation calling for the US to resume formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and end the "outdated and counter-productive" one-China policy and saying "that if the US scraps the one-China policy, then Article 8 of the Anti-Secession Law of China will be activated, which means China shall use nonpeaceful and other necessary means to solve the Taiwan question once and for all".