TAIPEI (Reuters) – A US senator arrived in Taipei on Thursday, bringing the number of visits by US lawmakers to Taiwan to three this month, amid ongoing military tensions between the island and China.
Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee who sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, is due to meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday, the Taiwanese Foreign Minister announced.
She will also meet with National Security Council Secretary General Wellington Koo and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, the minister said in a statement.
“The two parties will discuss the relations between the United States and Taiwan in terms of security, economy and trade”, was it indicated in the press release.
The spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States said that Beijing would take “firm measures” in response to the “provocations” of the United States.
“This visit proves, once again, that the United States does not seek stability in the Taiwan Strait, and that it spares no effort to provoke a confrontation between the two sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs. “, Liu Pengyu said in a statement.
Marsha Blackburn had expressed her support for Nancy Pelosi after the visit of the president of the American House of Representatives to the island.
“We must stand with Taiwan and I admire the courage of Nancy Pelosi, who did not submit to Joe Biden or the (Chinese Communist Party),” she wrote on Twitter.
This visit had triggered the ire of Beijing, which then conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan.
The Chinese army conducted new exercises near the island after US parliamentarians visited Taiwan for a two-day visit.
(Ben Blanchard report, French version Augustin Turpin and Camille Raynaud, told by Kate Entringer and Sophie Louet)