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Another Group of High-Ranking US Officials Visit Taiwan, Angering China Again

2022-08-15 , 11:11 am

Just 12 days after United States (US) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, another delegation of US lawmakers decided to make a two-day trip to the self-ruled island.

Watch this video to understand why Nancy Pelosi’s visit is such a big hoo-ha:

The US lawmakers arrived on Sunday (14 Aug), and they will be meeting Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday.

Who Are The US Delegates?

Given that Nancy Pelosi is the third most powerful democratic politician after President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, it’s safe to say that her delegation comprised the highest-ranking US lawmakers that visited Taiwan in the past 25 years.

The last time a US House Speaker visited Taiwan, it was led by Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

It appears that the US isn’t done with sticking the middle finger to China yet, since five more lawmakers decided to visit Taipei without even issuing a notice first.

The five US lawmakers, who were welcomed by Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu, are:

Senator Ed Markey, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations East Asia, Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Subcommittee
Representative John Garamendi, who is in the congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group
Representative Don Beyer, Chair of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee
Representative Alan Lowenthal, House member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Representative Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, part of the House Natural Resources Committee

Basically, you can think of them as “Members of Parliament” in the US.

Motives for The Visit

The second visit is a follow-up of Pelosi’s visit.

In a statement released by Markey’s office, it said that the lawmakers in Taiwan “will reaffirm the United States’ for Taiwan as guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, US-China Joint Communiques, and Six Assurances, and will encourage stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait”.

The US continues to maintain the stance that it is following the status quo and the visits do not contradict the previous agreements it made with China when establishing formal diplomatic ties.

… Good luck convincing Beijing about that one, because last we heard, they aren’t buying excuses.

In any case, besides meeting President Tsai Ing-wen, the group will be meeting elected leaders and members from the private sector to “discuss shared interests”.

This includes reducing the tensions in the Taiwan Strait and deepening their economic cooperation, like investing in Taiwan’s semiconductors industry for instance.

Unlike the Cold War between US and the Soviet Union where there was an arms race to see who can build the best missiles and reach the moon first, the growing Sino-American competition is focused on semiconductors.

The semiconductors chips are essential in the digital age as they are the building blocks that power everything from smartphones and household appliances to data servers and military equipment.

In the growing Sino-American competition, becoming a chip superpower is seen as critical to their respective national and economic security.

Additionally, there will be talks surrounding US-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains, climate change, and other issues of mutual interest that are deemed as significant.

China’s Response

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Beijing was angry about the latest visit, though not as infuriated as it had been when Pelosi previously did.

In the wake of the second visit, China’s embassy in Washington said on Sunday (14 Aug) that US lawmakers should “act in consistence with the US government’s one-China policy” and argued that this is just another piece of evidence that America is trying to destabilise the Taiwan Straits by constantly trying to instigate conflict and confrontations between the two sides and “interfere with China’s internal affairs”.

At least the statement wasn’t issued by Beijing’s foreign ministry or President Xi Jinping this time around?

While China asserts that Taiwan is an errant breakaway province that will eventually unify with the mainland, the island’s government denies Chinese claims of sovereignty and sees itself as a distinct entity separate from the mainland.

In the first white paper on Taiwan published in 20 years, China wrote, “We will only be forced to take drastic measures to respond to the provocation of separatist elements of external forces should they ever cross our red lines.”

The new policy documents left out a past promise to not send troops or administrators if it takes Taiwan back, which is a clear signal that Beijing intends to assert more control over the island, instead of giving it full autonomy like it previously promised.

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Taiwan’s Response

This is a worrisome situation for Taiwan, of course.

The recent polls show that an overwhelming majority of Taiwanese are against any sort of unification with Communist-ruled China.

(Seeing as how Taiwan still uses Traditional characters instead of the Simplified version—why are you making your own lives difficult—there’s clearly a lot of differences to bridge, and then there’s Hong Kong.)

President Tsai, who is still unfazed by the verbal and military threats that are being shot at her administration, said that Markey’s delegation to Taiwan “demonstrates the United State Congress’ firm support for Taiwan” once again.

She adds that it is especially significant during a time where China is heightening the tensions in the Taiwan Straits by conducting military exercises in the region.

The US might not officially recognise Taiwan, but the saving grace is that it is maintaining a strong relationship with the self-ruled island.

The US hasn’t stopped selling weapons to Taiwan either.

Possible Consequences

At this point, there isn’t much that hasn’t already been done by all three sides.

China has issued numerous warnings to the US and Taiwan, frequently repeating that “those who play with fire will perish with it”.

Furthermore, Beijing has ceased discussions involving theatre-level commands, defence policy coordination and military maritime consultations, thus cutting off the few communication links that two global superpowers have.

Sino-American relations are already bad as it is, it can’t plunge further unless one side decides to officially sever diplomatic ties or declare war.

For Taiwan, it has had to re-route or stop flights going through specific areas in their airspace due to the military drills.

China has already imposed economic sanctions on Taipei, and is still maintaining political and military pressure on the small island across the Taiwan Strait.

The worst the mainland could do to the island is to ramp up these existing measures.