BEIJING
\nSen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday in Taipei, the latest U.S. lawmaker to visit the island at a time of tense relations with China.
\nBlackburn\u2019s trip is the third by U.S. lawmakers this month. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s trip in early August plunged cross-strait relations to recent lows and prompted Beijing to launch large-scale military exercises in the waters around Taiwan.
\nTaiwan has been self-ruled for decades and is one of Asia\u2019s most vibrant democracies. However, Beijing claims the island as part of its territory and responds furiously whenever foreign officials or companies appear to treat Taiwan as a country. The United States and most other governments do not diplomatically recognize Taiwan, to maintain official relations with China.
\nIn her visit on Friday, Blackburn called Taiwan a \u201ccountry\u201d in passing, while saying it was important to support Taiwan in \u201cpreserving its freedom.\u201d
\n\u201cI am looking forward to a wonderful visit. And yes indeed, I do remember my visit fondly in 2008 and the opportunity to get to see some of your country firsthand,\u201d Blackburn told Tsai, according to a video posted on Tsai\u2019s official Facebook account.
\nSoon after arriving late Thursday evening local time, Blackburn wrote on Twitter that she hoped to ensure that Taiwan could combat China and the \u201cNew Axis of Evil.\u201d
\nTsai called Blackburn an \u201cimportant and close friend of Taiwan\u201d and expressed hope that Taiwan would be more deeply integrated into U.S.-led initiatives in the region. Taiwan has been excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a U.S.-led trade initiative, though Washington has launched separate trade negotiations with Taiwan.
\n\u201cWe look forward to working hand in hand with the United States and other like-minded democracies to safeguard peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,\u201d Tsai said.
\nChina appeared slow to respond on Friday to Blackburn\u2019s visit, which received limited attention on Chinese social media. Beijing consistently opposes visits by U.S. lawmakers.
\nChina\u2019s Embassy in Washington told Reuters in a statement that Beijing would take unspecified \u201cresolute countermeasures,\u201d adding that \u201cthe relevant visit once again proves that the U.S. does not want to see stability across the Taiwan Strait and has spared no effort to stir up confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China\u2019s internal affairs.\u201d
\nBlackburn\u2019s remarks come as a number of U.S. lawmakers have used visits to Taiwan to advocate for a shift in American policy. During a visit in March, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo suggested that the United States should do away with its policy of \u201cstrategic ambiguity,\u201d whereby Washington remains vague about whether the U.S. military would intervene in a cross-strait conflict.
\nChina cites such statements alongside more frequent exchanges and strengthened military and trade ties to claim that the United States is eroding its long-standing one-China policy, which acknowledges Beijing\u2019s claims without taking sides in the dispute. The White House has repeatedly denied that the policy has changed.
\nPelosi\u2019s visit sparked the largest Chinese military show of force since the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait crisis and Chinese import bans on some Taiwanese goods, in what Beijing said was a warning to Washington and Taipei against allowing \u201cseparatists\u201d to gain ground.
\nThe high-profile visit infuriated Beijing, which aired warnings to Washington publicly and privately ahead of the trip. Chinese leader Xi Jinping had personally asked President Biden to prevent Pelosi\u2019s visit, a request turned down by Biden, The Washington Post reported, according to a senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
\nA delegation of five members of Congress led by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) visited Taiwan last week, prompting a fresh round of Chinese military drills in the waters around the island.
\nTaiwan\u2019s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, told reporters in Taipei on Friday that he expected more visits from friendly lawmakers despite \u2014 or even because of \u2014 Beijing\u2019s military threats.
\n\u201cEven though China is trying to coerce us internationally, trying to \u2026 stop our friends from coming in, it won\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of the mutual pressure that China has demonstrated against Taiwan, there are more people than ever who want to come and show their support in Taiwan.\u201d
\nWu argued that greater engagement between the United States and Taiwan does not, as Beijing claims, alter the \u201cstatus quo\u201d of Taiwan continuing to exist as a separate entity from China without moving toward formal legal independence.
\nIn contrast, he said that recent Chinese military actions \u2014 such as asserting that the Taiwan Strait should not be considered international waters and conducting drills that cross the median line of the waterway \u2014 were \u201ctrampling on the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday in Taipei, the latest U.S. lawmaker to visit the island at a time of tense relations with China. Blackburn\u2019s trip is the third by U.S. lawmakers this month. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s trip in early August plunged cross-strait relations to recent lows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-279774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n