Eric Holcomb, governor of the US state of Indiana, arrived in Taiwan on Sunday night, kicking off a string of foreign visits that defy China’s increasing attempts to deter third countries from engaging with Taipei.
“I’m proud to be the first governor to visit Taiwan since before the pandemic,” Holcomb tweeted. He is scheduled to meet Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen and sign an economic co-operation agreement with cabinet officials on Monday before travelling to South Korea.
A bipartisan group comprising Japanese lawmakers, led by Keiji Furuya, of the ruling Liberal Democratic party, will visit Taipei on Monday. A US Congressional delegation is expected to arrive at the weekend. This is the fourth trip of American envoys in a matter weeks.
Beijing is expanding its campaign of military threats and sanctions in response to the trip by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this month to any high-level foreign visits to Taiwan, testing governments’ willingness to risk falling out with China.
Since many years, Taiwan has been visited by cabinet members and parliamentarians from the US, Europe, and Japan. Beijing has always opposed such exchanges, but has not retaliated with military threats or sanctions up until recently.
When a Japanese delegation visited on July 27, just a week before Pelosi’s visit, it did not trigger a harsh Chinese response. But when a Lithuanian deputy minister travelled to Taipei shortly after Pelosi’s departure, Beijing imposed sanctions on her. China announced another round in military exercises around Taiwan last week when another US Congressional delegation arrived.
Observers believe Beijing is unlikely to succeed in further isolating Taiwan through such moves. “China is trying to deter them from coming, but they are failing,” said Vincent Chao, a former head of the political department at Taiwan’s quasi-embassy in Washington who is running in local elections this year.
The Japanese government has not expressed concerns about Furuya’s trip as they see it as business as usual, according to officials. Tokyo is concerned that tensions over Taiwan might disrupt its delicate relationship with China.
“This happens to be the 50th anniversary of Japan-China [diplomatic relations]. There is pressure from the business community, but also we as diplomats prefer a stable relationship with China,” said a senior government official. “From that perspective, we should not encourage Japanese lawmakers to visit Taiwan.”
Japan has been one of the most vocal among US allies in condemning China’s recent military exercises, especially after five missiles landed in the country’s economic exclusive zone. Fumio Kishida the Prime Minister has also stressed that the two countries must continue to dialogue. On Wednesday, Japanese national security adviser Takeo Akiba held a seven-hour meeting with Yang Jiechi, China’s top foreign policy official, to discuss Taiwan, North Korea and Ukraine.
Democracies have been more open to Taiwan as a way to highlight common values and draw on its experience with Chinese economic statecraft, disinformation campaigns, and have become more hostile towards Beijing than the US, Japan, and Europe. As a result, the number of western tourists to Taipei is growing.
This year, Taiwan hosted 14 parliamentary and government delegations from other countries.
Since President TsaiIng-wen’s 2016 election, 58 members of Congress visited and the annual total has more than doubled.
Central and eastern European legislators and government officials have also become frequent visitors, as they have become disappointed over the benefits of economic engagement with China and pushed back against Beijing’s harsh political demands.
A second Lithuanian delegation will be arriving in Taipei next week to open the country’s representative office. In October, a group of Canadian lawmakers will visit the country along with two delegations from Germany’s parliament.
Read the full article here
