Visiting U.S. lawmakers sought to assure Taiwan on Thursday that the United States would stand by it in the face of pressure from China, though a bill that includes support for the island has stalled in Congress, and divisions over aid for Ukraine have fanned wider questions about Washington’s commitment to its partners.
“Today we’ve come as Democrats and Republicans to show bipartisan support for this partnership,” Representative Mike Gallagher, the Wisconsin Republican who is leading the congressional delegation to Taiwan, told President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei, the capital. Journalists were allowed to witness initial remarks in the meeting between Ms. Tsai and the delegation before being ushered out.
The five House members on the delegation — all members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which Mr. Gallagher heads — are the latest in a recent succession of American visitors to voice support for Taiwan, at a time when leaders in Washington are also trying to shore up security support for Ukraine and Israel.
Taiwan, which has no formal diplomatic ties with the United States, has often turned to American lawmakers for backing, and a dispute in the Capitol over military aid for Ukraine has highlighted the influence that Congress can have over the use of American power abroad.
Ms. Tsai told the lawmakers — including two other Republicans, John Moolenaar of Michigan and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, and two Democrats, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts— that their visit “further highlights the close partnership between Taiwan and the United States.”
“We hope to see even more exchanges between Taiwan and the United States in a range of domains in the new year,” Ms. Tsai said. “We will work together with even more like-minded countries to strengthen the resiliency of global democratic supply chains and contribute to development and prosperity around the world.”
