New US Delegation Visits Taiwan; China Launches More Drills

A new U.S. delegation is making an unannounced visit to Taiwan to meet with government and private sector representatives to discuss issues such as trade, investment in Taiwan's semiconductor industry and regional security in the Taiwan Strait.

The delegation, led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), includes California Democrats John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal, Virginia Democrat Don Beyer, and Republican Amata Catherine Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa. The group is scheduled to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday. The visit comes 12 days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip, when she became the most senior U.S. politician to visit the island in 25 years. The visit was followed by large military exercises by China around Taiwan, and China is now renewing military drills. 

China believes it has the right to use force, if necessary, to reunite the self-governing island with the mainland. The White House said last week that China had used Pelosi's visit as a pretext to launch an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan, jeopardizing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Meanwhile, China has argued that the visits by U.S. lawmakers infringe on America's One China policy, and they terminated key communication channels with the United States on August 6. The U.S. maintains a strong relationship with Taiwan, which includes selling weapons to its military, but the U.S. does not officially recognize Taiwan as independent.