US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said he plans to lead a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan this spring, despite renewed tensions with Beijing over China’s alleged spy balloon incursion over the US.
“I think it’s important to show China that we support Taiwan as a deterrence. I think it’s important to do that,” McCaul, a Republican, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The schedule and member list remains fluid, but the trip would likely take place during the congressional recess in April, a person familiar with the matter said.
Photo: AP
Discussions with some House Democrats have started about joining such a trip with McCaul, said one of the lawmakers who have been approached.
McCaul said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would plan a separate trip to Taiwan either later this year or next year.
He said he intends to join McCarthy, whenever the speaker does go.
The US-China relationship is already under fresh strain after Beijing flew an alleged spy balloon across the continental US and accused the administration of US President Joe Biden of overreacting when it shot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean.
China declined a US request to hold a secure call between US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) immediately after the balloon was downed, the US Department of Defense has said.
House Republicans have made competition with China a key feature of their agenda now that they control the chamber, and lawmakers formed a bipartisan select committee to study the matter.
McCaul has pushed the Biden administration to impose stronger export controls cutting China off from critical technologies.
US Senator Todd Young, a Republican who also visited Taipei last month, encouraged McCarthy and every other member of the US Congress to go.
In an interview, he said the Chinese government told him to cancel the visit.
“The worst thing we could do is to balk,” Young said.
At least 37 US lawmakers visited Taiwan last year, by far the most in a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Young was the first lawmaker to visit this year on Jan. 17.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS