China announced new military exercises around Taiwan after the island nation's president met with members of a new US congressional delegation on Monday, in another sign of America's support for the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own..

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Taiwanese media showed how the delegation arrived for the talks, but the details of the meeting have not yet been made public.. The delegation was scheduled to leave on Monday on a US government plane..

The visit comes less than two weeks after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, prompting China to rage and step up military exercises around the island.. Pelosi is the most influential member of the US government to visit Taiwan in the past 25 years.

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China also moved warplanes and naval ships across the middle waterway, long a buffer between sides that parted ways during the civil war in 1949..

China sees official contacts between US politicians and the Taiwan government as support for the island nation's independence from Beijing.

China's previous two weeks of military exercises had forced Taiwan to put its army on alert, but were met with mostly disobedience and apathy among citizens..

Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which should point out winners and losers by the urgency of events, left those seats vacant. Why? Read the article by Natalia Butyrskaya "