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.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS