Second US delegation visits Taiwan in a month
Beijing, Nov 26 (EFE).- A United States congressional delegation is visiting Taiwan, the second such visit to the country this month.
The delegation landed at Taipei Songshan Airport at around 10.10 pm on Thursday aboard a C-40 Clipper military transport plane, Taiwan’s state Central News Agency (CNA) reported late Thursday.
“The congressional delegation will meet with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss US-Taiwan relations, regional security, and other significant issues of mutual interest,” the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy on the island, said in a statement.
The two-day trip is “part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region,” the institute added.
The delegation comprises of Democratic representatives Mark Takano (California), Elissa Slotkin (Michigan), Colin Allred (Texas) and Sarah Jacobs (California), and Republican Nancy Mace (South Carolina).
The lawmakers will meet Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and visit the defense ministry during their visit, CNA reported, citing an anonymous source.
Earlier this month, a group of US lawmakers and senators visited the island, drawing angry protests from Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
The latest visit takes place amid tensions and increased interaction between countries holding official diplomatic relations with Beijing and the Taiwanese authorities.
It also comes a few days after a virtual meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in which they discussed the sensitive Taiwan issue.
This week Biden also invited Taiwan to take part in an upcoming Washington-led Summit for Democracy, which Chinese state media described as an “anti-China ideological clique.”
Beijing insists through its one-China principle on “reunification” with the island, which has been governed autonomously since the Kuomintang nationalists retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war against the Communists and ruled over the territory until the early 1990s, when a transition to democracy took place.
In 1979, Washington broke its official diplomatic ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing.
However, it continues to maintain its ties with Taiwan through the American Institute in Taiwan.
The US also approved the so-called Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, which establishes that it will help Taiwan in defense matters, even as it neither guarantees nor rules out that the US will intervene militarily in the event of a possible Chinese attack on the island, a stance that came to be known as “strategic ambiguity.” EFE
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