A US congressional delegation led by Ed Markey, a senator from the state of Massachusetts, landed in Taiwan on Sunday for a two-day visit, on a trip that risks keeping tensions with China high after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went earlier this month.
The delegation will meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu and local politicians, a foreign ministry statement said.
They will discuss bilateral relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains, climate change, and other significant issues of mutual interest, the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, said separately.
The delegation includes Representatives John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal, Don Beyer and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen.
Ms Pelosi’s stopover in Taiwan drew a strong response from China, which conducted its most provocative military drills in decades following her visit.
Beijing denounced the trip as a breach of the US pledge decades ago not to formally recognise the government of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.
While she was the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in a quarter of a century, visits by other members of Congress are common.
During her meeting with Taiwanese leaders, Ms Pelosi noted that several US senators, including the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Democrat Bob Menendez, had visited this year without prompting a firestorm of criticism from Beijing.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Chinese President Xi Jinping told his American counterpart Joe Biden shortly before Ms Pelosi’s visit that her trip would bring unspecified consequences, but also said he has no intention of going to war with the US.
