A group of US lawmakers held a rare publicly disclosed meeting with Taiwan’s top defense official, a discussion that risks spurring China to step up its military intimidation of the democracy.
The delegation, led by US Representative Ami Bera from California, met with Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Tuesday in Taipei, the Military News Agency reported yesterday.
Koo said that Taiwan is a reliable partner for the US and is committed to strengthening its defensive capabilities, the report said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
US President Donald Trump had suggested during his presidential campaign last year that Taipei increase its military spending.
The meeting adds to events lately that Beijing is likely to perceive as provocative. Beijing on Tuesday hit back at Taiwan for joining a years-long US campaign to curtail China’s technological ascent when it blacklisted the nation’s artificial intelligence (AI) and chipmaking champions.
Bera and the other lawmakers met President William Lai (賴清德) on Monday. While such meetings are fairly common for US lawmakers, they still annoy Beijing because it opposes nations it has ties with from having official contact with Taiwan.
China would also note that military officials from Taiwan attended exercises at a key US military base in Alaska last week. Also last week, retired military officials from Taiwan, Japan and the US reportedly attended a simulated “tabletop exercise” in Taipei.
A new round of Chinese exercises around Taiwan soon cannot be ruled out, said Lin Po-chou (林柏州), assistant research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based government-affiliated think tank.
“China might also escalate the scale of the existing provocation of Taiwan, or express dissatisfaction through propaganda warfare or commentary in official media outlets,” he added.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has held an unprecedented amount of exercises around Taiwan since Lai took office a little more than a year ago. It has also flexed its naval might around Japan and Australia.
The latest developments come as China-US tensions cooled following trade talks in London last week. Taipei is also holding discussions with Washington to avoid getting hit with tariffs.
While previous US delegations are likely to have had meetings with Taiwanese defense ministers, they are not usually publicly disclosed.
A group in 2021 visited the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei and was briefed on China’s military threats. Reports at the time did not say which Taiwanese military officials the lawmakers met.
The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Jack Chen (陳彥廷), director of Formosa Defense Vision, an advocacy group, said the announcement of the meeting between Koo and the US visitors “showed that the military exchanges and cooperation between the US and Taiwan are becoming increasingly high profile and transparent, aligning with a long-term trend that began under the [former US president Joe] Biden administration and has continued into the Trump administration.”
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