Taiwan welcomed its third U.S. congressional visit this month, as Sen. Marsha Blackburn began a three-day trip to the island that’s likely to further test Washington’s tense ties with Beijing.
Blackburn, a Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee that oversees defense policy, met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday morning, after landing in Taipei the previous evening. Days earlier, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb also stopped in Taiwan, overlapping with a delegation of lawmakers from Japan.
“The United States and Taiwan are bonded by common goals of democracy, freedom, and shared economic interest. Communist China’s goals are anything but,” Blackburn said in a statement. The senator said the two discussed the role allies can play in checking China’s ambitions in the region.
