\u2013 A group of House lawmakers is in Taiwan this week meeting with its newly elected officials, despite warnings from China to stay out of the region and as Beijing ramps up its military drills around the island.<\/p>\n
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is leading the multi-day diplomatic trip, which is coming a week after President Lai Ching-te and his deputies took office with a defiant speech emphasizing Taiwan\u2019s independence from Beijing\u2019s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).<\/p>\n
\u2018Leading this historic and bipartisan CODEL to Taiwan \u2014 the first U.S. congressional delegation to meet with the newly elected Taiwan officials \u2014 sends a signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States stands with the people of Taiwan and will work to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Straight,\u2019 McCaul told Fox News Digital. \u2018I look forward to meeting senior Taiwan leaders and members of civil society to continue strengthening our bilateral relationship on all fronts.\u2019<\/p>\n
The bipartisan group also includes Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., the panel\u2019s subcommittee chair for the Indo-Pacific, along with Reps. Andy Barr, R-Ky., Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Joe Wilson, R-S.C.<\/p>\n
Panetta told Fox News Digital the trip sent a critical pro-democracy message throughout the globe.<\/p>\n
\u2018Democracies around the world must stand together in defense of our shared values and freedoms,\u2019 Panetta said. \u2018This bipartisan delegation to Taiwan is a demonstration of that necessary partnership. I look forward to congratulating President Lai Ching-te on his recent inauguration and continuing to strengthen the bonds between our two nations with an eye toward the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the region.\u2019<\/p>\n
China\u2019s military, meanwhile, has been exercising a menacing show of force in drills involving \u2018sea assaults, land strikes, air defense and anti-submarine in the airspace and waters to the north and south of Taiwan Island,\u2019 Beijing\u2019s Defense Ministry said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s Defense Ministry said the drills included \u2018joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets\u2019 and were \u2018a strong punishment for the separatist acts of \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces.\u2019<\/p>\n
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it had tracked 49 Chinese military planes and 19 of China\u2019s Navy ships operating around the Island on Friday. It blasted China\u2019s drills as an \u2018irrational provocation.\u2019<\/p>\n
In his inaugural speech, Taiwan\u2019s President Lai said he sought to \u2018neither yield nor provoke\u2019 Beijing but pledged to stand firm against China\u2019s encroachment.<\/p>\n
The Chinese government has rebuked the new leader, and a top CCP official issued a direct warning to U.S. lawmakers not to meet with him or other Taiwanese government officials.<\/p>\n
\u2018Any visit by congressional members to Taiwan will seriously violate the one-China principle . . . interfere in China\u2019s internal affairs, undermine China\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity and send a seriously wrong signal to \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 separatist forces,\u2019 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said late last week.<\/p>\n
Wenbin called on the U.S. to stop official diplomatic communications with Taiwan, \u2018Otherwise, all consequences arising therefrom must be borne by the U.S.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
\u2013 A group of House lawmakers is in Taiwan this week meeting with its newly elected officials, despite warnings from China to stay out of the region and as Beijing ramps up its military drills around the island. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is leading the multi-day diplomatic trip, which is coming <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}