The initiative comes as maneuvers continue near the border
A new delegation of US congressmen has landed this afternoon in Taiwan, just 12 days after the controversial visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, considered by China as one of the biggest recent affronts against its claims. of sovereignty over the territory.
The delegation will meet with senior officials of the island during a two-day meetingaccording to a statement from the American Institute of Taiwan (the ‘de facto’ Embassy of the United States in the territory, self-proclaimed as independent).
The bipartisan group, headed by Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey, will discuss “bilateral relations, regional security, trade, investment, climate change and other issues of mutual interest.”
The senator is accompanied by representatives Alan Lowenthal, John Garamendi, Don Beyer and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.
Shortly before the landing of the plane with the congressmen, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense confirmed that six warships and at least 22 Chinese warplanes have approached the maritime security line of the territory, in what has been interpreted as the umpteenth display of force by Beijing.
Specifically, the Ministry has confirmed that 11 of the fighter planes briefly crossed the median that separates the Taiwan Strait with its air safety zone, before turning around.
As usual, Taiwan responded by declaring an alert to its forces and warning the Chinese aircraft to leave the scene immediatelyaccording to the Ministry’s statement, collected on its Twitter account.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, had ruled out this week that the Chinese government goes “beyond” the military exercises around Taiwan after Pelosi’s controversial visit.
Biden concern
“I’m not worried, but I am concerned that they are moving as much as they are“, he said in relation to the military maneuvers launched last Thursday by the Chinese Army near the island.
The US president, who has insisted that Pelosi’s decision to go to Taiwan was “only hers”, has asserted that, in any case, he does not consider that Beijing will go “further”, with which he has ruled out a further increase in tension and a possible armed conflict in the area.
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Links between China and the island of Taiwan were severed in 1949after the forces of the nationalist Kuomintang party, led by Chiang Kai Shek, suffered a defeat in the civil war against the Communist Party and moved to that archipelago.
Relations between Taiwan and mainland China were restored only on a business and informal level in the late 1980s. The Chinese government’s basic policy towards Taiwan is peaceful reunification under the “one country two systems” principle.