The delegation of five members of Congress, led by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), were expected to meet with President Tsai Ing-wen during an overnight stop in Taipei as part of a larger tour of Asia, according to a statement from the American Institute in Taiwan. Taiwan had not released details of the meeting by Monday midafternoon local time.
China appeared slow to react to the unannounced arrival of the latest congressional delegation, which came two weeks after another group of lawmakers led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sparked the largest display of Chinese military saber rattling since the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait crisis. On Chinese microblog Weibo, a state media account called Watching the Taiwan Strait on Sunday evening described the visit as “again sending a wrong signal” but the post was later deleted.
On Monday afternoon, however, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command announced drills involving multiple branches of the military near Taiwan, which it said were a warning to the United States and Taiwan of “playing cheap political tricks.” China’s defense ministry said in a statement that the latest visit by U.S. lawmakers showed that the United States was the “true agitator and breaker of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” adding that the PLA was continuing to perfect its ability to repel any foreign interference in the region.
The initially muted response is starkly different from a flurry of angry statements from Beijing released as soon as Pelosi’s plane touched down in Taipei on Aug. 2. Because of security concerns, U.S. lawmaker visits to Taiwan are usually unannounced — unlike the House Speaker’s trip which was reported by the Financial Times in July.
China’s military show of force in response to Pelosi’s visit began in earnest a day after she left. Then, over four days, China fired missiles into the sea on all sides of Taiwan’s main island while fighter jets repeatedly crossed the unofficial border that runs down the middle of the strait. Taiwan’s military said the drills were tantamount to a blockade and involved simulation of an attack, although disruptions to commercial flights and shipping were limited and daily life continued largely as normal for Taiwan’s 23 million residents.
The arrival of another delegation just as tensions in the Taiwan Strait were easing underscores a growing rift between Beijing and Washington over the latter’s efforts to strengthen its unofficial relationship with Taipei. While the United States is seeking to normalize visits by its lawmakers, China is trying to “securitize” exchanges with regular military responses, said Wen-Ti Sung, a scholar at the Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program.
“U.S. congressional visits to Taiwan do not amount to change in U.S. policy, though Beijing may criticize them as such,” Sung said, adding that reconsidering or delaying such visits to Taiwan for fear of provoking a drastic Chinese military response “would allow Beijing to link a normal exercise in parliamentary diplomacy with military stability, and securitize a hitherto relatively nonsensitive area of diplomacy.”
Beijing in recent months has issued increasingly pointed warnings directed at both Taipei and Washington not to test its resolve over Taiwan. In a white paper issued last week, China’s State Council instructed the United States to “not to stand in the way of the reunification of China” and laid out Beijing’s belief that the United States is undermining China’s claims though actions including “contriving ‘official’ exchanges with Taiwan, increasing arms sales, and colluding in military provocation.”
The document also did away with a previous commitment not to station PLA troops or send administrative personnel to Taiwan in the event of unification — a shift widely interpreted in Taiwan as indicating a hardened position from Beijing.
The White House has repeatedly stated that the United States’ “one China” policy — which acknowledges Beijing’s claims over Taiwan but takes no position on how the two sides should resolve their differences other than urging a peaceful resolution — remains unchanged. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington retains close unofficial ties with Taipei, including supporting Taiwanese efforts to build up its own defense.
Dou reported from Beijing.
