China’s military said it held fresh patrols around Taiwan to “fight back” against another US congressional visit less than two weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taipei.
The patrols and exercises conducted in the “sea and air space around Taiwan” on Monday provided a “resolute response and stern deterrence to US-Taiwan collusion,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian said in a statement. The move came as a delegation led by Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, continued a two-day visit to the democratically governed island.
Markey’s delegation was expected to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and local lawmakers, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. The two sides intended to discuss regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains and climate change, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, the de-facto US embassy.
The delegation will reaffirm US support for Taiwan and “encourage stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Markey’s office said in a statement. Meetings were planned with political and business leaders to discuss topics including investments in semiconductors, according to the statement. While Pelosi was the highest-ranking US official to make it to Taiwan in a quarter century, visits by other members of Congress have been common for decades. During her meeting with the Taiwanese leader, Pelosi recalled that several US senators, including the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bob Menendez, had visited this year without drawing a firestorm of criticism from Beijing.