By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, will lead a congressional delegation to Taiwan in August, a senior congressional official said on Thursday.
The trip, which was first reported by the Financial Times, takes place as some members of Congress – both President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans and Democrats – have expressed concern that Trump is de-emphasizing security issues as he works on negotiating a trade deal with China.
Lawmakers have proposed legislation to put pressure on China and voiced unhappiness with reports that Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te is set to delay a diplomatically sensitive trip his team had floated to the Trump administration for August that would have included stops in the United States.
Administration officials have said that Trump remains fully committed to Asia-Pacific security matters as he pursues his trade agenda and a good personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wicker’s upcoming trip.
Wicker is one of the fiercest advocates in the U.S. Congress for Taiwan, and his visit is likely to anger Beijing, which regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington.
The Chinese embassy urged Wicker and lawmakers to cancel their plans.
“China firmly opposes any form of official exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan and urges the relevant lawmakers to abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques and immediately cancel their plans to visit Taiwan,” the spokesperson said in a post on X.com.
China claims the democratically governed island as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Beijing has stepped up military and political pressure against the island in recent years.
(Reporting by Patricia ZengerleEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
