Senator Marsha Blackburn arrived in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, on a US military aircraft, live television footage from Songshan Airport in the city center showed. She was greeted on the tarmac by Douglas Hsu, director general of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Blackburn’s office said.
“Taiwan is our strongest partner in the Indo-Pacific region. Regular high-level visits to Taipei are long-standing US policy,” Blackburn said in a statement. “I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island.”
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China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory against strong objections from the democratically elected government in Taipei, began military exercises near the island after a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Blackburn was due to meet President Tsai Ing-wen during her trip, which ends Saturday, as well as senior security official Wellington Koo and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
“The two sides will exchange views extensively on issues such as Taiwan-US security and economic and trade relations,” the ministry added in a brief statement.
Taiwan’s presidential office said Tsai would meet with Blackburn on Friday morning.
Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington Liu Pengyu vowed that Beijing would take unspecified “decisive countermeasures” in response to US “provocations”.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan in this handout photo released August 26, 2022. Taiwan Office of the President/Handout via REUTERS
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“The relevant visit proves once again that the US does not want to see stability in the Taiwan Strait and spares no effort to provoke confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Liu said in a statement.
Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, earlier expressed his support for the trip by Pelosi, a member of US President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party.
Pelosi’s visit angered China, which responded by test-firing ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, and cutting some lines of dialogue with Washington.
Pelosi was followed about a week later by a group of five other US lawmakers, with China’s military responding by conducting more exercises near Taiwan. read more
The Biden administration has sought to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing, fueled by the visits, from escalating into conflict, reiterating that such congressional trips are routine. read more
“Members of Congress and elected officials have been going to Taiwan for decades and will continue to do so, and this is consistent with our longstanding policy of One China,” a White House National Security Council spokesman said in response to a question about the visit of Blackburn.
The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
China has never ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan’s government says the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island and therefore has no right to claim it, and that only its 23 million people can decide their future.
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Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Michael Martina and Susan Heavey in Washington. Editing by Howard Goller, Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
