A US congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan last week was aimed at learning how Washington can help support Taipei’s defense capabilities and to discuss ways to boost bilateral trade ties, US Senator John Cornyn said on Sunday.
Cornyn, who led the all-Republican delegation, said in a news release that the group had returned to the US on Sunday after concluding an Indo-Pacific trip in the past few days that took it to Taiwan, the Philippines and India “to strengthen ties with critical allies and partners to counter Chinese aggression.”
The delegation consisted of US senators Mike Crapo, Mike Lee and Tommy Tuberville, as well as US representatives Tony Gonzales and Jake Ellzey, the news release said.
Photo: CNA
The delegation met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as well as defense and foreign affairs leaders, in Taipei, “to learn how the US can best support Taiwan’s development of domestic asymmetric defense capabilities and discuss trade relations,” he said.
They also visited the world’s largest semiconductor foundry to tour a fabrication facility and receive a briefing about China’s efforts to threaten Taiwanese chipmaking and destabilize this critical supply chain, the news release said, referring to the headquarters of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
After leaving Taiwan, the delegation visited India, where they met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The group also met with a representative of the Dalai Lama, who spoke with the group about shared values for religious freedom and human rights, and China’s repression and persecution of Tibetans, according to the press release.
“The Indo-Pacific is the largest military theater in the world, and our allies there are invaluable to ensuring we can counter China’s overreach,” Cornyn said.
“Our delegation was able to see firsthand the issues facing countries from mainland India to island partners in the Pacific, and I am grateful to our host nations and our servicemembers stationed there,” he said.
The statement issued by Cornyn is the first time the senator made public the low-profile visit from Tuesday to Thursday last week. It was not previously announced what happened, amid rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
A flight tracker app showed that a US Navy C-40 Clipper military transport plane had arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night from the Philippines, and according to reports, it was carrying the US congressional delegation.
Shortly after, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) confirmed the previously undisclosed visit, but declined to provide any details on the length of the delegation’s stay or itinerary in Taiwan, citing the wishes of the US lawmakers.
After Cornyn made public their visit to Taiwan on Sunday, the ministry was finally able to confirm their three-day visit, saying they met with Tsai, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄), Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁).
They also talked with Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) via videoconference instead of in person, because Wu was then undergoing a 14-day quarantine after returning from a trip to Europe, the ministry said.
The ministry said the trip was the first-ever large-scale delegation to Taiwan consisting of lawmakers from the US Senate and the House of Representatives, and exemplified long-term US support for Taiwan.
Cornyn is one of the initiators of several pro-Taiwan bills in the US Senate, including the Taiwan Partnership Act that was submitted in July, calling for collaboration between the US National Guard and Taiwan’s military, and the Taiwan Deterrence Act put forth earlier this month to increase military aid to Taiwan and bolster its defense, amid China’s growing coercion.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS