A bipartisan delegation from the United States Congress reaffirmed support for Taiwan during a visit Thursday following its election of a new president. The delegation’s visit is the first by U.S. lawmakers to the island since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party won a third-straight term in the Jan. 13 election.
China, America’s chief competitor for global influence, claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to use force to bring the self-governed island under its control. Beijing strongly condemned Lai Ching-te’s election and appears set to continue its policy of refusing to engage with the island’s government — a practice that’s been in place since outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen’s election in 2016.
“The support of the United States for Taiwan is firm. It’s real, and it is 100% bipartisan,” U.S. Representative Mario Díaz Balart said.
Balart, a Florida Republican, was joined by California Democrat Ami Bera. “In the 21st century, there’s no place for aggressive action. We have to learn to live together, to trade together, to work together, to solve problems together,” Bera said.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
China, America’s chief competitor for global influence, claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to use force to bring the self-governed island under its control.
In 2022, it responded to a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with some of its largest military maneuvers in years, including missile launches and a simulated blockade of Taiwan.
President Joe Biden, seeking to calm that complaint, insists there’s no change in America’s longstanding “one-China” policy, which recognizes Beijing as representing China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan.
Washington cut formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979 in order to recognize China, but U.S. law requires it to ensure the island has the ability to defend itself.
That has translated into a heavy reliance by Taiwan on U.S. military hardware and a law saying that Washington must treat threats against the island as a matter of “grave concern.”
“We understand the pressures and the type of coercion of the Chinese Communist Party, and yet the Taiwanese people spoke loud and clear,” Balart said at a late Thursday news conference.
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