US MPs in Taiwan Warn China Sexual Abuse: Dani Alves Sentenced to Four and a Half Years in Prison

With a warning to China, a delegation of US lawmakers began a three-day visit to Taiwan on Thursday.

They want to convey the message that “if Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party were ever to make the incredibly stupid decision to invade Taiwan, this effort would fail.”said delegation leader Mike Gallagher during a meeting with Taiwan’s newly elected President Lai Ching-te and Vice President-elect Hsiao Bi-khim.

Gallagher chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on Strategic Competition with China and is considered a critic of Beijing’s communist leadership.

The world’s freedom is under attack by “authoritarian aggression,” Gallagher had said recently at the start of the trip in a conversation with Taiwan’s outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen. He praised Tsai for her leadership, which has made mutual relations stronger than ever.

The visit predictably sparked anger in China, which considers the democratically ruled island part of the People’s Republic and is threatening a violent conquest. The US should stop “sending false signals to Taiwan’s independence forces,” a Beijing Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Thursday.

According to China’s One China Doctrine, states that maintain diplomatic relations with Beijing are in fact not allowed to maintain official contacts with Taiwan. Beijing has rejected visits by foreign politicians to Taiwan for decades.

Like the US, Germany does not have an embassy in Taiwan, but only an unofficial representation. However, under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the United States is committed to supporting Taiwan’s defense capabilities.

Washington has long supplied Taiwan with weapons. The Taiwanese government thanked the Pentagon on Thursday for recently approving a $75 million shipment.

According to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taipei, the delegation will also meet with other senior officials and members of civil society. The meeting will discuss US-Taiwan relations and other issues of common interest such as regional security, trade and investment. (saw/sda/dpa)