Reuters
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has been carrying out military exercises around the island after a visit earlier this month by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was followed by five U.S. lawmakers on Sunday and Monday. Pelosi's visit infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, and sending warships and fighter jets close to Taiwan, though the scale of the activities has now greatly reduced. On a government-organised trip to the key Hualien air base on Taiwan's mountainous east coast, the first to a military facility since the Chinese exercises began, reporters watched ground crew demonstrate how they rapidly upload weapons onto F-16s, including Boeing Co's Harpoon anti-ship missiles.