China announced more military exercises around Taiwan on Monday as the island’s president received members of a new US congressional delegation, in a fresh show of support from US lawmakers for the self-governing island, which China claims as part of its territory. .
Taiwanese media showed the arrival of the delegation for a meeting, although details about the meeting were not published at first.
The visit came less than two weeks after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, prompting several days of threatening military exercises by China, which included launching missiles above the island and the Taiwan Strait.
China has also sent warplanes and military ships across the center line of the strait, which has long been a cleavage between two separate regions in the 1949 civil war. China sees formal contacts between US politicians and the government of the island in support of its independence from Beijing.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense and its army’s Eastern Command on Monday announced new drills in the skies and waters around Taiwan, which were intended to serve as “a resolute response and solemn deterrence against US-Taiwan collusion and provocation.” ”, according to the Ministry.
The Chinese exercises of the previous two weeks caused Taiwan to put its army on alert, although the population received them mainly with an attitude of defiance and apathy.
In Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, the chairman of the Foreign and National Defense Committee, Lo Chih-Cheng, met with US lawmakers and said that “his visit at this time is of great importance, because the Chinese military exercise (intends) dissuade US congressmen from visiting Taiwan.”
“His visit at this time shows that China cannot prevent politicians from any country from visiting Taiwan, and also sends the important message that the American people stand with the Taiwanese people,” Lo added.
China says it wants to use peaceful means to bring Taiwan under its control, but its recent show of force has emphasized the military threat.
The five-member delegation was led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and was scheduled to meet with other government and private sector representatives. The talks were expected to revolve around easing tensions across the Taiwan Strait and investing in Taiwan’s crucial semiconductor sector.
The other members of the delegation were Republican Representative Aumua Amata Coleman, a delegate from American Samoa, and Americans John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal, from California, and Don Beyer, from Virginia.
A top White House official concerned with Asia policy said last week that China had used Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to launch an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan, endangering peace and stability across the world. Taiwan Strait and in the region as a whole.
“China has overreacted and its actions remain provocative, destabilizing and unprecedented,” said Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, on a call with reporters.
“It has tried to ignore the central line between the PRC and Taiwan, which has been respected by both sides for more than 60 years as a stabilization figure,” he said.
China accuses the United States of encouraging independence forces in Taiwan by selling military equipment to the island and dealing with its authorities. Washington says it does not support Taiwan’s independence, but that its differences with China must be resolved by peaceful means.
China’s ruling Communist Party maintains that it prefers Taiwan to join China peacefully, but does not rule out the use of force if necessary. The two sides split during a civil war in 1949 in which the Communists took control of China and the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan.
In remarks on Friday, Campbell said the United States would send military planes and ships to the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks and was working to design a framework for trade talks with Taiwan, which he said Washington intended to announce in the coming days.
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