Biden dispatches unofficial delegation to Taiwan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former US Senator Chris Dodd and former Deputy Secretaries of State Richard Armitage and James Steinberg headed to Taiwan on Tuesday at US President Joe Biden’s request, in what a White House official called a “personal signal” of the president’s commitment to the Chinese-claimed island and its democracy.

A senior Biden administration official told Reuters the dispatch of the “unofficial” delegation comes as the United States and Taiwan mark the 42nd anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, for which Biden voted when he was a US senator.

The delegation will meet with senior Taiwanese officials and followed “a long-standing bipartisan tradition of US administrations sending high-level, unofficial delegations to Taiwan,” the official said.

The official called it “a personal signal” from the president, who took office in January.

“The selection of these three individuals – senior statesmen who are longtime friends of Taiwan and personally close with President Biden – sends an important signal about the US commitment to Taiwan and its democracy.”

Taiwan’s presidential office said President Tsai Ing-wen would meet with the delegation on Thursday morning.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the group would arrive at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport midafternoon on Wednesday.

The State Department said on Friday it was issuing new guidelines to enable US officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, a move that deepens relations with Taipei amid stepped-up Chinese military activity around the island, which China claims as its own.

Former US president Donald Trump angered China by sending several senior officials to Taiwan, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced days before the Trump presidency ended in January that he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts.