News / Foreign Policy / China

US sends another delegation to Taiwan, Beijing slams visit

Tuesday, 01 March 2022 4:36 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 01 March 2022 4:59 PM ]

Michael Mullen (3rd-R), former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, leading a delegation, as they pose for photos with Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu (4th-R) on arrival at Sungshan airport in Taipei, on March 1, 2022 (photo via AFP)

China says the United States’ support for the Chinese Taipei is “bound to fail,” as President Joe Biden sent a delegation of former senior military and security officials to the self-ruled island.

The delegation, led by one-time chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, arrived in the self-ruled island on a private jet on Tuesday. They were met by Taiwan's foreign minister Joseph Wu at Taipei's downtown Songshan airport.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would also arrive in Chinese Taipei on Wednesday.

Taiwan's premier Su Tseng-chang said earlier in the day that the trip showed "the importance both of the Taiwan-US relationship and Taiwan's position" as well as the staunch US support for the island.

They will meet president Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday.

China slams as ‘provocative’ passage of US warship through Taiwan Strait

China denounces as ‘provocative’ the passage of a US warship through the strategically-sensitive Taiwan Strait.

China, which has sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, has repeatedly warned the US against official ties with the island. It says the US contacts with Taipei and the weapon sales to the island are a violation of China’s sovereignty.

Reacting to the visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that, "Whoever United States sends to show support for Taiwan is bound to fail."

"The will of the Chinese people to defend our country's sovereignty and territorial integrity is immovable," he said.

Under the “One China” policy, almost all world countries recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taipei. The US, too, recognizes Chinese sovereignty over the island, but in an attempted affront to China and in violation of its own official policy, America constantly sells weapons to the island, bypassing Beijing, and avidly backs its secessionist president Tsai, besides the deployment of military vessels to the Taiwan Strait.

The latest visit to the island is happening amid a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.