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DPATaipeiFive US lawmakers visiting Taiwan met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and other lawmakers in a show of support for Taiwan, amid escalated tensions across the Taiwan Strait, with Beijing holding a further military drill on Monday. Tsai told the delegation that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that authoritarian states threaten world order. She also said China’s long-term military drills conducted near Taiwan also seriously undermine regional stability and peace.Stressing that Taiwan and the US share common values of democracy and freedom, Tsai expressed Taiwan’s hope to cooperate more closely with the US to jointly maintain regional stability, strengthen economic ties and build safer supply chains. The delegation arrived on Sunday for a surprise two-day visit, which followed a trip by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, earlier this month.The group included Republicans and Democrats and is made up of Senator Ed Markey and Representatives John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, Don Beyer and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.Markey called Taiwan an important lighthouse for democracy, human rights and free speech, during the meeting. However, to defend such values, Taiwan is under threat every day, he said.“We have moral obligation to do all we can do to prevent an unnecessary conflict,” Markey said, according to Taiwan’s presidential office.Meanwhile China said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted a joint military patrol and drill near Taiwan. Chinese Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement on Monday that the move was taken to deter both Taiwan and the US as they “continue to play political tricks undermining the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.” “China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. A handful of US politicians who do not think of themselves and try to challenge the one-China principle are doomed to fail,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.China’s Defence Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said earlier that the US delegation’s visit undermined China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, Taiwan legislator Lo Chih-cheng of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) told reporters that the US group’s visit at such a sensitive time, coming shortly after China’s large-scale drills, shows that Beijing cannot prevent leading political figures from around the world from visiting Taiwan.“Their arrival also delivers an important message that American people are standing with Taiwanese people,” Lo said. He said issues discussed at a meeting with US lawmakers included future Taiwan-US military cooperation.“In all of these meetings, the delegation had an opportunity to exchange views with Taiwan counterparts on a wide range of issues of importance to both the United States and Taiwan,” the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which acts as the de facto US embassy, said in a statement issued after the visit.“I’m travelling to Taiwan with a bipartisan congressional delegation to reaffirm US support for Taiwan and encourage stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Markey said ahead of the trip on Twitter. China also put greater pressure on Taiwan, in military and economic terms, after Pelosi’s 19-hour visit to Taipei on August 2-3, holding large-scale military exercises around the self-governing island that were extended beyond their initial scope.Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the island part of its territory. Beijing rejects official contacts between other countries and Taipei.
