A group of seven US lawmakers is set to visit Taiwan on February 21 and meet with the island’s new top leaders, fueling Taiwan Strait political tensions.
Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party and a Republican lawmaker, will lead a delegation to visit Taipei in a show of support for Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te ahead of his inauguration in May.
The delegation will also meet during the visit with Han Kuo-yu, a Kuomintang lawmaker who is the new president of the Legislative Yuan.
Wang Liang-yu, a spokesperson of Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry, said the Taiwanese government cannot provide more information but it welcomes US lawmakers and people from different sectors to visit Taiwan and show support to the island.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet commented on the US legislators’ Taiwan trip due to the Chinese New Year holidays this week.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in Washington, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that Beijing “firmly opposes the US having any form of official interaction with Taiwan and interfering in Taiwan affairs in any way or under any pretext.”
On February 13, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 14 Chinese fighter jets operating in the Taiwan Strait, nine of which had crossed the median line at points to the northern and southeastern airspace of Taiwan. It said the Chinese warplanes were carrying out “joint combat readiness patrols” with their warships.
Beijing expressed strong opposition when the two co-chairs of the US Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Representatives Ami Bera, a Democrat from California, and Mario Díaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida, visited Taiwan in late January.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at that time that China fiercely objects to the US having any form of official communication with Taiwan. Mao urged the US to “exercise extreme prudence in handling Taiwan-related issues.”
Taiwan’s Commercial Times, a pro-Beijing newspaper, reported earlier this month that the US Commerce Department will send officials to Taiwan in March to meet with the island’s chipmakers in Hsinchu and Tainan and explain to them about US chip export rules.
An unnamed Taiwanese economic official told the newspaper that many chipmakers said they were confused by some of the clauses of the chip export rules unveiled last October. The official said a small misinterpretation of the wordings could make a huge difference.
Taiwan Strait crisis
On January 13, about 20 million Taiwanese voters chose their new leader in the presidential election. Beijing was disappointed by the victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s Lai as it said the party promotes Taiwan Independence.
On January 14-16, a group of former US officials, including former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, accompanied by the incumbent American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chair Laura Rosenberger, visited Taiwan.
The AIT said in a statement that the US government has asked these former senior officials to travel in their private capacity to Taiwan.
It added that these former officials would “convey congratulations from the American people to Taiwan on its successful elections, support for Taiwan’s continued prosperity and growth, and our longstanding interest in cross-Strait peace and stability.”
The group was received by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
“Two groups of US politicians have already visited Taiwan after the Taiwanese elections. Their frequent visits to the island showed that Washington is worried that a Taiwan Strait crisis will suddenly break out,” Chen Bing, a commentator of the Shenzhen Satellite TV, said in January.
“The US is worried that Lai would recklessly cross mainland China’s red lines, a move which will trigger military conflicts in the Taiwan Strait,” Chen said. “It also feels anxious that the Taiwanese economy will decline if mainland China cuts off its ties with the island.”
He said US politicians want to discuss with Taiwanese leaders about how to handle a Taiwan Strait crisis but their frequent visits to Taiwan is one of the reasons why tensions in the cross-Strait relations remain high.
Some commentators have said that the US presidential election in November this year will affect Taiwan’s future more than the island’s own election.
“The recent interactions between the US and Taiwan showed that Washington still wants to use the Taiwan issues to suppress, weaken and change mainland China,” Li Haidong, director of Center for American Studies, China Foreign Affairs University, said in an interview.
Li said some US politicians also want to use the Taiwan matter to gain popularity and serve their own needs in local politics. He warned that such a trend will create a new uncertainty to the situation in the Taiwan Strait and may hurt the stability of the Sino-US relations.
According to a survey released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), about 67% of US experts and 57% of Taiwan experts believed a Taiwan Strait crisis is likely in 2024.
About three-quarters of US experts and two-thirds of Taiwanese experts said the ongoing efforts of the US and China to stabilize their ties would not help stop such a crisis from happening.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a meeting in Munich on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Read: Taiwan’s new kingmaker holds the key to war and peace
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
