US legislator to attend inauguration of Taiwan’s Lai
WASHINGTON, D.C.: A top United States lawmaker said on Wednesday he would visit Taiwan for the inauguration of leader-elect Lai Ching-te, a year after his last trip to the self-ruled, democratic island angered China.
Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke alongside Taiwan’s representative in Washington and legislators from both parties at an event in the US Capitol marking 45 years since a landmark law supporting Taiwan was passed.
“I’ll be leading a delegation to Taiwan to celebrate the [leader’s] inauguration,” McCaul said of the ceremony set to take place on May 20.
McCaul last visited Taiwan in April 2023 to meet leader Tsai Ing-wen. China responded with a show of military force and later imposed sanctions on McCaul, a Republican from Texas.
“The last time I visited Taiwan, I was greeted very warmly by … Tsai, but not so warmly by the CCP,” McCaul said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
“It’s an illustration in terms of the aggression that we’re seeing out of China right now,” he added.
China claims Taiwan, where the mainland’s defeated nationalists fled in 1949. It has since grown into a competitive democracy and leading high-tech economy, although Beijing has not ruled out using force to “reunify” the two.
China has voiced anger at any hints of official independence for Taiwan. It staged a massive show of force in August 2022 and cut off areas of cooperation with the US following a visit by then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who again showed support for Taiwan at Wednesday’s event.
US-China relations have stabilized since then, with President Xi Jinping visiting California in November following visits to Beijing by top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
China previously lashed out at Lai, who is Tsai’s deputy and has historically emphasized Taiwan’s separate identity.
But US officials were cautiously upbeat about containing tensions over Taiwan’s January 13 election, saying Beijing’s actions have not broken any past precedents.
US President Joe Biden sent an “unofficial” delegation of two former senior officials to Taiwan to meet Lai shortly after his election.
Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Only 11 countries, plus the Vatican, still recognize Taiwan.
The US Congress responded to the move in 1979 by passing the Taiwan Relations Act, which requires Washington to provide weapons to Taipei to defend itself and ensures that Taiwanese representatives in the US are treated as foreign diplomats in all but name.
Alexander Tah-Ray Yui, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador, who recently took over after his predecessor Hsiao Bi-khim was elected deputy leader, voiced gratitude to the US over the assurances.
The law provides Taiwan with “security and the political space to create a vibrant democracy and a system that respects human rights, the rule of law and market-based economic principles,” Yui said.
Unusually in polarized Washington, Taiwan has enjoyed broad bipartisan support, with Republicans warning of threats from China and Democrats hailing the status of human rights in Taiwan, Asia’s frontrunner in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer equality.
Rep. Ted Lieu, a progressive Democrat born in Taiwan, said there was consensus in Congress “to have Taiwan be able to defend itself.”
He urged Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, to allow a vote on a $95-billion package passed in the Senate that would authorize assistance to Taiwan alongside Ukraine and Israel.
Johnson has sought to tie the bill to calls led by Republican presidential contender Donald Trump to take tougher action against migrants seeking to enter the US.