Taiwan is high on the summer travel list for U.S. members of Congress on their August recess this year, as U.S. lawmakers make a point of asserting American support for the self-governed island despite objections from China. The payoff photos from this week's five-member congressional visit, like that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi less than two weeks earlier, are meant as a pointed message to China: newly arrived lawmakers disembarking on the tarmac of Taipei's international airport, greeted by beaming Taiwanese officials glad for the American support.
Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Monday was wrapping up the second U.S. congressional delegation there this month. Pelosi had been the most senior U.S. official in a quarter-century to visit Taiwan, underscoring the longstanding U.S. policy of solidarity with the island's democratically elected leaders.
