A delegation from the United States Congress arrived in Taiwan on Sunday, amid tension with China over the visit that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, made to the island days ago. The entourage made up of Democratic Senator Ed Markey, Democratic Congressmen John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal and Don Beyer, and Republican Congresswoman Amata Coleman Radewagen “will visit Taiwan from August 14 to 15, 2022 as part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific regionaccording to the American Institute in Taiwan.
According to the scheduled agenda, the legislators will meet with senior leaders to discuss the US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investmentin between Other themes. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “sincere welcome to the delegation” and called the visit another sign of rapprochement between Taipei and Washington.
“As China continues to escalate tensions in the region, the US Congress has once again organized a major delegation to visit Taiwan, displaying a friendship that does not fear threats and intimidation from China“, the ministry said in a statement. The itinerary of the trip, according to the portfolio, includes a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and a banquet hosted by Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
The tension between China and Taiwan continues
Shortly before the plane landed with the congressmen, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported that six warships and at least 22 Chinese warplanes approached the territory’s maritime security line. The newspaper Global Timesclose to the Chinese government, said citing Chinese military sources that “Theater Command East is likely to conduct strong and powerful military operations in the waters and airspace surrounding the island of Taiwan in response to the latest visit by US congressmen “.
Pelosi’s visit on August 2 exacerbated tension between the United States and China, which considered the gesture a show of support for the island’s independence and responded with live-fire military maneuvers and sanctions against Taiwan. At all times, the White House sought to disassociate itself from this visit and stressed that it was a personal decision of the president of the House of Representatives.
Last Wednesday, in his first press conference since his trip, Pelosi said the US will not allow China to isolate Taiwan and pointed out that the objective of his visit was to reaffirm “the strong relationship” between his country and the island. That same day, China published a white paper expressing zero tolerance for separatist activities in Taiwan, proposing a peaceful reunification and clarifying that it will take the island by force if necessary.
Links between China and the island of Taiwan were severed in 1949, after the forces of the nationalist Kuomintang party suffered a defeat in the civil war against the Communist Party and moved to that archipelago. Relations between Taiwan and mainland China were restored only on a business and informal level in the late 1980s. The Chinese government’s fundamental policy towards Taiwan is peaceful reunification under the “one country, two systems” principle.