TAIPEI/WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) – A delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for a two-day trip during which they will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, the second group of high level than the visit while there are military tensions between the self-governing island and China.
Beijing, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has held military drills on the island to express its anger over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei earlier this year. august
The de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said the delegation is led by Sen. Ed Markey, who is accompanied by four House lawmakers in what he described as part of a broader visit to the region of the ‘Indo-Pacific.
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Taiwan’s presidential office said the group would meet with Tsai on Monday morning.
“Especially at a time when China is raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the region with military exercises, Markey leading a delegation to visit Taiwan once again demonstrates the strong support of the US Congress for Taiwan “, he said in a statement.
Markey chairs the Senate Foreign Relations East Asia Pacific Subcommittee on International Cybersecurity. Co-leaders of the visit are Rep. John Garamendi of the Congressional Task Force on Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control and Rep. Don Beyer, a Markey spokesman said.
China’s embassy in Washington said Sunday that “members of the US Congress should act consistently with the US government’s one-China policy” and argued that the latest visit to Congress “proves once again that the US does not want to see stability in the Taiwan Strait.” and has spared no effort to provoke confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
A spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council said members of Congress have been going to Taiwan for decades and will continue to do so, adding that such visits are in line with the United States’ long-standing one-China policy. United States.
Markey’s office said Taiwan lawmakers will “reaffirm U.S. support for Taiwan as guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S.-China Joint Communiqués, and the Six Guarantees, and encourage stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait”.
“SHARED INTERESTS”
The group will meet “with elected leaders and members of the private sector to discuss shared interests, including reducing tensions across the Taiwan Strait and expanding economic cooperation, including investments in semiconductors,” Markey’s office said.
The delegation made a preliminary stop in South Korea, where Markey met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released images of four lawmakers standing in the center of Taipei’s Songshan Airport who had arrived on a US Air Force transport plane, while Markey arrived at the Taoyuan International Airport.
“The delegation will meet with senior Taiwanese leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains, climate change and other important issues of mutual interest,” the de facto US embassy said.
Although China’s exercises around Taiwan have decreased, it is still conducting military activities.
Eleven Chinese military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered Taiwan’s air defense zone on Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said. read more Thirteen planes crossed the strait on Saturday, the ministry said. Read more
US officials have said Beijing “overreacted” to Pelosi’s visit and used it as a pretext to try to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Read more
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Reporting by Ben Blanchard, and David Shepardson and Michael Martina in Washington, writing by Shanghai staff; Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Nick Macfie, Grant McCool and Diane Craft
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