F-16V fighter at Hualien Air Force Base, TaiwanBEJING, Aug 17The Taiwan Ministry of Defense held a media demonstration on Wednesday of its most powerful F-16V fighter jet, equipped with Harpoon cruise missiles, amid increased military exercises by the People's Liberation Army near the island and Chinese warplanes and ships approaching the island, according to a report. Central News Agency. It is reported that the Taiwanese armed forces conducted a combat readiness drill of their air force, and also demonstrated to the invited media the process of installing American-made Harpoon anti-ship missiles and AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles on a fighter F-16V. The demonstration took place at the Hualien Air Force Base on the east coast of Taiwan, the agency said.China to conduct exercises in several areas of the South China SeaOn Monday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said that the Chinese army is again conducting military exercises and patrols around Taiwan in response to a two-day visit to the island by a delegation of US congressmen led by Senator Ed Markey. On Wednesday, the island's defense ministry said the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent 21 aircraft and five warships to Taiwan. Earlier, a spokesman for the island's defense ministry, Sun Lifang, said that the daily military exercises and provocations from China are a good opportunity for the Taiwanese army to hone combat training. China, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned Pelosi's visit, seeing in this step US support for Taiwanese separatism, and began large-scale military exercises. war with the Communist Party of China, the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek moved to Taiwan. Business and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to contact through non-governmental organizations — the Beijing Association for the Development of Relations across the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation. parliamentarians may visit Taiwan in October
