TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Mike Gallagher, one of the U.S. government’s most prominent critics of China, will visit Taiwan next week, according to the Financial Times.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday (Feb. 14) that Gallagher, who heads the U.S. House of Representatives’ China committee, will arrive in Taipei next Wednesday (Feb. 21). There he will meet with members of Taiwan’s two major political parties, including with President-elect Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and newly elected Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Gallagher is expected to lead a delegation of seven U.S. lawmakers to Taiwan, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Gallagher’s office did not respond to reporting of the Feb. 21 arrival date but did confirm in a recent interview that he planned to visit Taiwan.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry provided a statement to Taiwan News declining to respond to the report, only saying the ministry has always welcomed visiting members of the U.S. Congress.
The Republican Party lawmaker heads a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives formed in response to China’s growing power, and is considered a leading China critic in the lawmaking body. Despite that, Gallagher said on Sunday (Feb. 11) that he would not seek reelection once his term in office expires.
“Electoral politics was never supposed to be a career,” he said in a statement explaining his decision. As a prominent supporter of NATO, some have speculated that Gallagher’s decision was linked to differences with his party’s likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump drew bi-partisan ire and international concern for his criticism of NATO on Sunday. That is in contrast to Gallagher, who described the U.S. system of military alliances in Europe as being “like oxygen.”
“You may take it for granted, but you’ll miss it when it’s gone,” he wrote in a 2019 editorial.
Gallagher’s position on Taiwan also is likely at odds with Trump’s. The former president has been described as not caring about Taiwan, while Gallagher has worked to expedite arms sales to the nation.
Alongside his criticism of NATO, Trump on Sunday said that U.S. military aid to foreign countries should be provided in the form of a loan.
