A delegation of five members of the U.S. House of Representatives met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday in a one-day surprise visit aimed at demonstrating America’s “rock-solid” solidarity with Taiwan.
Simultaneous to the visit, China, which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory, conducted “combat readiness” drills in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from China.
The delegation of U.S. lawmakers consisted of Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Colin Allred (D-Texas), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).
“When news of our trip broke yesterday, my office received a blunt message from the Chinese Embassy, telling me to call off the trip,” Slotkin wrote on Twitter.
China quickly condemned the trip, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian calling the visit a violation of the “one-China principle” that posits Taiwan is part of China.
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, has been a separate political entity from the rest of China since 1948, when the Republic retreated to the island upon being defeated by the revolutionary communist forces of Mao Tse-tung.
“That individual U.S. politicians wantonly challenge the one-China principle and embolden the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces has aroused the strong indignation of 1.4 billion Chinese people,” Zhao said. He called the unification of Taiwan and China is an “unstoppable historical trend.”
According to the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy, the four Democrats and lone Republican arrived in Taiwan Thursday. The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, having severed them in 1979 when the country recognized the communist People’s Republic of China on the mainland as “China.”
“We are here in Taiwan this week to remind our partners and allies, after two trying years that we’ve endured, that our commitment and shared responsibility for a free and secure Indo-Pacific region remain stronger than ever,” said Representative Takano.
Takano called America’s relationship with Taiwan “rock solid and has remained steadfast as the ties between us have deepened.”
Tsai, who received the U.S. lawmakers at the Presidential Office in Taipei, reaffirmed the island’s alignment with America and noted the two nations’ cooperation in veterans’ affairs, economic issues, and trade.
“Taiwan will continue to step up cooperation with the United States in order to uphold our shared values of freedom and democracy and to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the Taiwanese president said.
The Eastern Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army released a statement declaring that the readiness patrols were “necessary measures for the current situation in the Taiwan Strait.” It vowed to “take all necessary measures to counter any external interference and separatist attempts for ‘Taiwan independence.’”
The delegation’s visit is the third by U.S. lawmakers this year, taking place just weeks after a group of Republican House members visited the island. They met with President Tsai, National Security Secretary General Wellington Koo, and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, among other officials.
The White House has invited Taiwan to a Summit for Democracy next month, a move that has provoked the ire of China.
Writer James Perloff explained how U.S. policies during the Chinese civil war allowed the communists to defeat the nationalists, who were ostensibly America’s allies, and overthrow the Republic of China:
With Japan’s 1945 defeat, Lend-Lease aid, sitting in India and slated for the Nationalists, was either destroyed or dumped in the ocean. By 1948, due to Marshall’s weapons embargo, the Nationalist government faced nearly inevitable defeat by the communists, who continued receiving unlimited weapons from Russia.…
Although Dean Acheson deceptively told Congress the Nationalists had received over $2 billion in U.S. aid, most was non-military or unusable.
The New American has reported extensively on the Biden family’s ties to Communist China. For example, during the Obama administration, Joe Biden gutted American coal with strict regulations. He has talked about “getting rid of fossil fuels” and even told miners to “learn to code.”
Yet, Bohai Harvest, a private-equity firm Hunter Biden directed since its 2013 founding, signed a contract worth millions with Yancoal, whose majority shareholder is the Chinese state-owned Yankuang Group.
Hunter Biden also helped China acquire American technology through his Chinese-funded investment firm’s partnership with AVIC, the largest military contractor in China.
