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China’s military responded to the surprise arrival in Taiwan of a new delegation of U.S. lawmakers by announcing a resumption of military drills around the island, in the
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The delegation, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Ed Markey (D., Mass.), met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday and deepening U.S.-Taiwan trade, according to Taiwan’s presidential office. The group arrived in Taipei on Sunday without having previously announced the two-day visit.
“We have a moral obligation to do everything we can to prevent an unnecessary conflict, and Taiwan has demonstrated incredible restraints and discretion during challenging times,” Mr. Markey told Ms. Tsai, according to video footage of the meeting later shared by the presidential office.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command published comments by its spokesman, Maj. Shi Yi, saying the unit in the sea and airspace around the island of Taiwan in response to the visit.
This is a stern deterrent to the U.S. and Taiwan against continuing to play political tricks and undermining the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Maj. Shi said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry in turn condemned China’s latest military exercises as “undermining regional peace and stability” in a statement released Monday evening. It said China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, had sent 30 aircraft on sorties near Taiwan, including 15 that crossed the median line, a notional line that bisects the Taiwan Strait separating Taiwan’s main island from the Chinese mainland, as of 5 p.m.
The arrival of Mr. Markey’s delegation and China’s resumption of drills after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, over the democratically self-ruled island and encircle it with multiday live-fire military drills simulating a blockade. China’s military on Wednesday but said it would continue to conduct regular patrols of the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to take control of it, by force if necessary—a pledge it reiterated in a new policy paper published last week, its first in 22 years. China’s leadership, the first by a speaker of the House in 25 years, as an attempt by Washington to upset the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
Mrs. Pelosi’s visit could trigger a “domino effect” of other world politicians traveling to Taipei, which would boost its international standing, potentially encouraging it to formally declare independence, according to the people with knowledge of Chinese thinking.
Ms. Tsai and Mr. Markey discussed Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance, with Ms. Tsai saying she expected President Biden’s recent signing of the Chips Act to provide more incentives for Taiwanese investment in the U.S., according to the video released by Taiwan’s presidential office.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused the U.S. of “hollowing out and distorting the one-China principle” during a regular news briefing in Beijing on Monday.
The “one-China principle” is a position advanced by Beijing that the People’s Republic of China is the only sovereign and legitimate China, and that Taiwan is part of it. In contrast, the U.S. maintains a “one-China policy” that grants Beijing diplomatic recognition and acknowledges, but doesn’t endorse, China’s claims to Taiwan.
For decades, the U.S. has kept vague whether it would intervene in a China-Taiwan conflict,
Wang Ting-yu, a member of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party who serves on the Taiwanese legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, said Taiwanese lawmakers and the American congressional delegation discussed whether Washington should shift from strategic ambiguity to “strategic clarity” on Taiwan in a closed-door meeting on Monday.
“When a dictatorial communist country threatens to use military force against a democratic country like Taiwan, defending democracy is a consensus between Taiwan and the U.S. There’s no room for ambiguity,” Mr. Wang said.
Mrs. Pelosi said at the end of her visit that American determination
In addition to Mr. Markey, the bipartisan congressional delegation includes House members John Garamendi (D., Calif.), Alan Lowenthal (D., Calif.), Don Beyer (D., Va.) and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R., American Samoa). The group also planned to meet with Taiwanese private-sector leaders to discuss global supply chains and climate change.
Before arriving in Taipei on Sunday, Mr. Markey met in Seoul with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who during her trip.
