Second high-level US Congressional delegation visits Taiwan to meet top leadership

Asia-Pacific, News, US August 15, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

A delegation of five U.S. congress members arrived in Taipei on August 14 to meet the Taiwanese leadership.

The trip comes 12 days after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concluded her controversial trip to the Taiwan island. The congressional delegation, headed by Senator Ed Markey, arrived in Taipei for an unannounced two-day visit. The delegation includes Democratic representatives John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, and Don Beyer, and Republican representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.

According to the statement released by Senator Markey’s spokesperson, the delegation would meet with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. During their stay in Taiwan, the five-member delegation would also hold discussions with the Taiwanese parliament’s committee for foreign affairs, national defense, and other committees related to international trade.

The senator’s spokesperson said earlier that the delegation “will meet with elected leaders and members of the private sector to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and expanding economic cooperation, including investments in semiconductors.”

During his trip, U.S. Senator Markey also highlighted that “under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States must continue to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community and help Taiwan withstand cross-Strait coercion. We must continue to work together to avoid conflict and miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait.”

The trip comes at a time when the tensions between Taipei and Beijing are escalating especially in the light of Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. China expressed its displeasure at Pelosi’s visit and termed it as an unnecessary provocation and an attempt to demean China’s claims regarding the self-governed island.

*^{U.S. Senator Ed Markey meets Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 15, 2022. (Image Credit: Reuters)}*

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted live-fire drills around Taiwan soon after Pelosi concluded her trip to Taiwan. A statement released by the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command defined the large-scale military exercise as a “targeted military operations to counteract the situation.” China also released a map that shows the drills and military activities encircling the Island of Taiwan from all sides.

The U.S. reacted to China’s military actions around Taiwan by summoning China’s ambassador to the White House and condemning the military activities around the Taiwan Strati. The White House said that there is no change to the U.S.’s “One China” policy and that Washington recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.

China has recorded its graving concerns over the recent unannounced trip from the U.S. congress representatives to Taiwan. The Chinese embassy in Washington released a statement that said China would take “resolute countermeasures in response to the U.S.’s provocations.”

The spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu said on Twitter that China “firmly opposes any kind of official ties” between the U.S. and Taiwan. He further said that the second congressional visit to Taiwan in a single month, despite China’s retaliation, “proves that the U.S. does not want to see stability across the Taiwan Straits and has spared no effort to stir up confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

The U.S. follows the One-China policy to acknowledge China’s claims regarding the island of Taiwan but maintains a strategic ambiguity when it comes to defining its foreign relations with Taiwan. The Taiwan Relations Act, which acts as the U.S.’s rule book for its relations with Taiwan, is open-ended when it comes to stating how the U.S. would react in case of an armed conflict in Taiwan.