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U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives in Taiwan for official visit heavily criticized by China

Highest-ranking american official to visit taiwan in 25 years.

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China, which quickly announced that it would conduct military manoeuvres in retaliation for her presence.

Pelosi arrived aboard a U.S. air force passenger jet and was greeted on the tarmac at Taipei's international airport by Taiwan's foreign minister and other Taiwanese and American officials. She posed for photos before her motorcade whisked her unseen into the parking garage of a hotel.

Pelosi's visit has ratcheted up tension between China and the United States because China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, and it views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island's sovereignty.

The speaker framed the trip as part of a broader mission at a time when "the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy."

Her visit comes after she led a congressional delegation to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in the spring, and it serves as a capstone to her many years of promoting democracy abroad.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives in Taiwan

"We must stand by Taiwan," she said in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on her arrival in Taiwan. She cited the commitment that the U.S. made to a democratic Taiwan under a 1979 law.

"It is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats," she wrote.

'Solemn deterrent'

Soon after Pelosi's arrival, China announced a series of military operations and drills, which followed promises of "resolute and strong measures" if she went through with her visit.

"This action is a solemn deterrent against the recent major escalation of the negative actions of the United States on the Taiwan issue, and a serious warning to the 'Taiwan independence' forces seeking 'independence.'"

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said early Wednesday that China had sent 21 planes flying toward Taiwan, 18 of them fighter jets. The rest included an early warning plane and an electronic warfare plane.

China's official Xinhua News said the army planned to conduct live-fire drills from Thursday through Sunday across multiple locations. 

WATCH | Pelosi's visit triggers fiery response:

U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit triggers fiery Chinese response

The People's Liberation Army said the manoeuvres would include the firing of long-range ammunition in the Taiwan Strait.

In an image the news agency released, the drills were to take place in six different areas in the waters surrounding Taiwan.

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will launch a series of joint military operations around the Taiwan Island starting from Tuesday night <a href="https://t.co/2z7WqDZqR1">https://t.co/2z7WqDZqR1</a> <a href="https://t.co/iIE1WApW52">pic.twitter.com/iIE1WApW52</a> &mdash; @XHNews

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington's actions "on the Taiwan issue is bankrupting its national credibility."

"Some American politicians are playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan," Wang said in a statement. "This will definitely not have a good outcome … the exposure of America's bullying face again shows it as the world's biggest saboteur of peace."

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island's decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support.

Pelosi, head of one of three branches of the U.S. government, is the highest-ranking elected American official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.

China warns U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against visiting Taiwan

The Biden administration did not explicitly urge Pelosi to call off her plans. It repeatedly and publicly assured Beijing that the visit would not signal any change in U.S. policy on Taiwan.

On Tuesday, following Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the White House that China had positioned itself to take further actions against Taiwan, including possible "economic coercion."

A day earlier, Kirby noted that members of Congress have routinely visited the island over the years — in April, Sen. Lindsey Graham led a delegation of six lawmakers from both parties to Taiwan, while the U.S. health secretary at the time visited in 2020 .

U.S. officials have said the U.S. military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region. Four U.S. warships, including an aircraft carrier, were positioned in waters east of Taiwan on what the U.S. navy called routine deployments, a U.S. navy official told Reuters on Tuesday.

U.S. considers funds for Taiwan

Back in the United States, 26 Republican lawmakers issued a statement of rare bipartisan support for the Democratic speaker, calling trips by members of Congress to Taiwan routine.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he backed Pelosi's visit as a display of support for Taiwan's democracy and said any allegations that her itinerary was provocative are "utterly absurd."

"I believe she has every right to go," McConnell said in a Senate speech.

Senators are considering legislation to bolster Taiwan's defences as a direct response to China's rhetoric. The Taiwan Policy Act, which has support from both parties, will be discussed Wednesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The package would bolster Taiwan's defence capabilities with nearly $4.5 billion US ($5.6 billion Cdn) in security assistance over the next four years and provide other support for Taiwan's democratic government and civil society. The measure would also designate Taiwan as a "major non-NATO ally," which opens the door to more security and trade benefits.

Backers call it the most comprehensive restructuring of U.S. policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

• Biden says U.S. willing to use force to defend Taiwan, but White House says its policy is unchanged
• Trump changes tack and backs 'one China' policy

Pelosi has sought for decades to focus attention on Chinese democracy movements. She travelled to Tiananmen Square in 1991, two years after China crushed a wave of democracy protests.

In 2009, she hand-delivered a letter to then-President Hu Jintao calling for the release of political prisoners. She had sought to visit Taiwan's island democracy earlier this year before testing positive for COVID-19.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after the Communists won a civil war on the mainland.

The U.S. maintains informal relations and defence ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China. The Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed U.S. relations with the island, does not require the U.S. to step in militarily if China invades, but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.

China has been steadily ratcheting up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. China cut off all contact with Taiwan's government in 2016, after President Tsai Ing-wen refused to endorse its claim that the island and mainland together make up a single Chinese nation.

• Taiwan president rejects Chinese rule, calls for talks so both countries can coexist

Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island's decades-old independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don't support, despite some imprecise statements in recent years by both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, whose administration opened a de facto embassy in Taiwan .

Pelosi kicked off her Asian tour in Singapore on Monday and is also expected to meet with officials in South Korea later in the week.

With files from Reuters and CBC News

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U.S. lawmakers arrive in Taiwan as China blasts McCarthy’s meeting with Tsai

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Taiwan on Thursday, a day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy defied China by meeting with the island’s president .

“Being here I think sends a signal to the Chinese Communist Party that the United States supports Taiwan and that we’re going to harden Taiwan, and we want them to think twice about invading Taiwan,” said Rep. Michael McCaul , R-Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

It was the delegation’s third overseas stop after visiting U.S. allies Japan and South Korea .

The lawmakers arrived in the self-ruling democracy as China, which claims the island as its territory, is still fuming over a meeting Wednesday in California between McCarthy, R-Calif., and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen . Tsai, who is transiting through the U.S. on her way back from a trip to Guatemala and Belize, is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Friday and meet with McCaul’s delegation Saturday.

The flurry of visits comes amid dramatically worsening China-U.S. relations, as Beijing increases pressure on Taiwan, declines to criticize Russia's invasion of Ukraine and grows more assertive internationally. The sighting and downing of a spy balloon over the U.S. in February angered many Americans and soured ties even further.

China had criticized the McCarthy-Tsai meeting as a “provocation” and a violation of the one-China principle, under which Washington recognizes Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China while maintaining unofficial relations with Taipei.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry accused Tsai and McCarthy, the third most senior U.S. government official, of promoting Taiwanese independence through their meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“China will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular briefing Thursday.

The White House says that visits by high-level Taiwanese officials are routine and that China should not use Tsai’s travel through the U.S. as a “pretext” for greater aggression against the island.

As of Thursday evening, Beijing had not announced any large-scale military drills of the kind it held after Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., McCarthy’s predecessor as speaker, visited Taiwan in August, but Taiwan said it was monitoring some smaller movements.

The maritime safety administration of Fujian province, which is about 100 miles across the water from Taiwan, said Wednesday that it was launching a three-day joint cruise and patrol operation in the Taiwan Strait that could include “on-site inspections” of other ships. The Taiwanese government said it had lodged a strong protest with China over the operation and instructed shipping operators to refuse any Chinese requests to board.

Taipei was also watching a Chinese aircraft carrier that its defense minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, said was about 200 nautical miles off Taiwan’s east coast Wednesday. Chiu told reporters that although the carrier group was in the area for training purposes, the timing was “quite sensitive.”

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to comment Thursday on the aircraft carrier.

The U.S. delegation began its visit Thursday by meeting with Taiwanese Vice President William Lai, who is likely to be nominated by Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party to run as her successor in the presidential election early next year.

“I want to make it clear that the United States stands by you and will protect you,” McCaul said in remarks before the meeting.

He later clarified, “We protect Taiwan by arming and training them — and by being prepared to defend them if necessary.” 

Lai said Taiwan, which regularly buys defensive weapons from the U.S., would do its utmost to protect itself, as well.

“It is true that we need to prepare for a war in order to avoid one,” he said, “and we need to be prepared to fight to stop a war.”

In meetings with senior Taiwanese officials from Thursday to Saturday, the U.S. lawmakers will discuss bilateral relations, regional security, trade and investment and “other significant issues of mutual interest,” according to the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei.

Their visit “fully demonstrates the firm support of the U.S. Congress for Taiwan regardless of party affiliation,” the Taiwanese Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Other members of the delegation are Reps. French Hill, R-Ark., Michael Lawler, R-N.Y., Ami Bera, D-Calif., Young Kim, R-Calif., Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., and Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.

Courtney Kube reported from Taipei, and Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong.

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Jennifer Jett is the Asia Digital Editor for NBC News, based in Hong Kong.

A New Pacific Arsenal to Counter China

With missiles, submarines and alliances, the Biden administration has built a presence in the region to rein in Beijing’s expansionist goals.

By John Ismay ,  Edward Wong and Pablo Robles April 26, 2024

U.S. officials have long seen their country as a Pacific power, with troops and arsenals at a handful of bases in the region since just after World War II.

U.S. military or partner bases

But the Biden administration says that is no longer good enough to foil what it sees as the greatest threat to the democratic island of Taiwan — a Chinese invasion that could succeed within days.

The United States is sending the most advanced Tomahawk cruise missiles to Japan and has established a new kind of Marine Corps regiment on Okinawa that is designed to fight from small islands and destroy ships at sea.

The Pentagon has gained access to multiple airfields and naval bases in the Philippines , lessening the need for aircraft carriers that could be targeted by China’s long-range missiles and submarines in a time of war.

The Australian government hosts U.S. Marines in the north of the country, and one of three sites in the east will soon be the new home for advanced American-made attack submarines. The United States also has a new security agreement with Papua New Guinea.

Potential submarine bases

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and other officials in Beijing have watched the U.S. moves with alarm. They call it an encirclement of their nation and say the United States is trying to constrain its main economic and military rival.

Since the start of his administration, President Biden has undertaken a strategy to expand American military access to bases in allied nations across the Asia-Pacific region and to deploy a range of new weapons systems there. He has also said the U.S. military would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.

On Wednesday, Mr. Biden signed a $95 billion supplemental military aid and spending bill that Congress had just passed and that includes $8.1 billion to counter China in the region. And Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Shanghai and Beijing this week for meetings with Mr. Xi and other officials in which he raised China’s military activity in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, calling it “destabilizing.”

Mr. Xi told Mr. Blinken on Friday that the United States should not play a “zero-sum game” or “create small blocs.” He said that “while each side can have its friends and partners, it should not target, oppose or harm the other,” according to an official Chinese summary of the meeting.

Earlier in April, the leaders of the Philippines and Japan met with Mr. Biden at the White House for the first such summit among the three countries. They announced enhanced defense cooperation, including naval training and exercises, planned jointly and with other partners. Last year, the Biden administration forged a new three-way defense pact with Japan and South Korea.

President Biden held a trilateral meeting earlier this month with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines at the White House.

Yuri Gripas for The New York Times

“In 2023, we drove the most transformative year for U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific region in a generation,” Ely S. Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said in a statement following an interview.

The main change, he said, is having American forces distributed in smaller, more mobile units across a wide arc of the region rather than being concentrated at large bases in northeast Asia. That is largely intended to counter China’s efforts to build up forces that can target aircraft carriers or U.S. military outposts on Okinawa or Guam.

These land forces, including a retrained and refitted U.S. Marine littoral regiment in Okinawa, will now have the ability to attack warships at sea.

For the first time, Japan’s military will receive up to 400 of their own Tomahawk cruise missiles — the newest versions of which can attack ships at sea as well as targets on land from over 1,150 miles away.

The Pentagon has also gained access rights for its troops at four additional bases in the Philippines that could eventually host U.S. warplanes and advanced mobile missile launchers, if Washington and Manila agree that offensive weaponry can be placed there.

The United States has bilateral mutual defense agreements with several allied nations in the region so that an attack on the assets of one nation could trigger a response from the other. Bolstering the U.S. troop presence on the soil of allied countries strengthens that notion of mutual defense.

In addition, the United States continues to send weapons and Green Beret trainers to Taiwan, a de facto independent island and the biggest flashpoint between the United States and China. Mr. Xi has said his nation must eventually take control of Taiwan, by force if necessary.

“We’ve deepened our alliances and partnerships abroad in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,” Kurt Campbell, the new deputy secretary of state, told reporters last year, when he was the top Asia policy official in the White House.

What Deters China?

Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said in an interview in Taipei that the strengthened alliances and evolving military force postures were critical to deterring China.

“We are very happy to see that many countries in this region are coming to the realization that they also have to be prepared for further expansions of the P.R.C.,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

To some Chinese military strategists, the U.S. efforts are aimed at keeping China’s naval forces behind the “first island chain” — islands close to mainland Asia that run from Okinawa in Japan to Taiwan to the Philippines.

U.S. military assets along these islands could prevent Chinese warships from getting into the open Pacific waters farther east if conflict were to break out.

Leaders in China’s People’s Liberation Army also talk of establishing military dominance of the “second island chain” — which is farther out in the Pacific and includes Guam, Palau and West Papua.

First Island Chain

Second Island Chain

philippines

But several conservative critics of the administration’s policies argue that the United States should be keeping major arms for its own use and that it is not producing new ships and weapons systems quickly enough to deter China, which is rapidly growing its military .

Some American commanders acknowledge the United States needs to speed up ship production but say the Pentagon’s warfighting abilities in the region still outmatch China’s — and can improve quickly with the right political and budget commitments in Washington.

“We have actually grown our combat capability here in the Pacific over the last years,” Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., the incoming commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in an interview. “But our trajectory is still not a trajectory that matches our adversary. Our adversaries are building more capability and they’re building more warships — per year — than we are.”

Mr. Paparo said new American warships were still more capable than the ones China is building, and the U.S. military’s “total weight of fires” continued to outmatch that of the People’s Liberation Army, for now.

Warplanes on the flight deck of U.S.S. Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier, during a joint U.S. and Japanese military exercise in the Philippine Sea in January.

Richard A. Brooks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty , a Cold War-era arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, prohibited land-based cruise or ballistic missiles with ranges between 311 miles and 3,420 miles. But after the Trump administration withdrew from the pact, the United States was able to develop and field a large number of small, mobile launchers for previously banned missiles around Asia.

Even with the deployment of new systems, the United States would still rely on its legacy assets in the region in the event of war: its bases in Guam, Japan and South Korea, and the troops and arms there.

All of the senior U.S. officials interviewed for this story say war with China is neither desirable nor inevitable — a view expressed publicly by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. But they also insist that a military buildup and bolstering alliances, along with diplomatic talks with China, are important elements of deterring potential future aggression by Beijing.

Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, told Mr. Blinken on Friday in Beijing that “the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building, and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions.” He warned the United States “not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, not to hold China’s development back, and not to step on China’s red lines and on China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”

U.S. military or

partner bases

The new deterrent effort is twofold for American forces: increasing patrolling activities at sea and the capabilities of its troop levels ashore.

To the former, the Pentagon has announced that U.S. Navy warships will participate in more drills with their Japanese counterparts in the western Ryukyu Islands near Taiwan and with Filipino ships in the South China Sea, where the Chinese coast guard has harassed ships and installations controlled by the Philippines .

A swarm of Chinese militia and Coast Guard vessels chased a Philippine Coast Guard ship in the South China Sea last year.

Jes Aznar for The New York Times

To the latter, Marine Corps and Army units already in the Pacific have recently fielded medium- and long-range missiles mated to small, mobile trucks that would have been prohibited under the former treaty.

These trucks can be quickly lifted by Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft or larger cargo planes to new locations, or they can simply drive away to evade a Chinese counterattack. A new flotilla of U.S. Army watercraft being sent to the region could also be used to reposition troops and launchers from island to island.

In an interview last year with The New York Times, Gen. David H. Berger, then the Marine Corps’ top general, said the service had begun analyzing strategic choke points between islands where Chinese forces were likely to transit throughout the Pacific. He said the service had identified sites where Marine assault forces like the new Okinawa-based littoral regiment could launch attacks on Beijing’s warships using these new weapons.

Philippines

Partner bases

The Pentagon announced in February last year a new military base-sharing agreement with Manila, giving U.S. forces access to four sites in the Philippines for use in humanitarian missions, adding to the five sites previously opened to the Pentagon in 2014. Most of them are air bases with runways long enough to host heavy cargo planes.

Plotting their locations on a map shows the sites’ strategic value should the United States be called upon to defend their oldest treaty ally in the region , if the Philippines eventually agrees to allow the U.S. military to put combat troops and mobile missile systems there.

One, on the northern tip of Luzon Island, would give missile-launching trucks the ability to attack Chinese ships across the strait separating Philippines from Taiwan, while another site about 700 miles to the southwest would allow the U.S. to strike bases that China has built in the Spratly Islands nearby.

In 2023, the United States committed $100 million for “infrastructure investments” at the nine bases, with more funds expected this year.

The Pentagon has forged closer military ties with Australia and Papua New Guinea , extending America’s bulwark against potential attempts by the Chinese military at establishing dominance along the “second island chain.”

The Obama administration moved a number of littoral combat ships to Singapore and deployed a rotating force of Marines to Darwin, on Australia’s north coast, giving the Pentagon more assets that could respond as needed in the region.

Last year, the Biden administration greatly elevated its commitment to Australia, which is one of America’s most important non-NATO allies.

The U.S.S. North Carolina, a Virginia-class submarine, docking in Perth, Australia last year.

Tony Mcdonough/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A new multibillion dollar agreement called AUKUS — for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — will permanently transfer some of the U.S. Navy’s newest Virginia-class attack subs to Canberra . The location of the new bases for those subs has not been announced, but the first group of Australian sailors who will crew them graduated from nuclear power training in America in January.

These stealthy submarines, which can fire torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles, will potentially add to the number of threats Beijing faces in case of a regional war.

Just north of Australia, an agreement in August gave U.S. forces more access to Papua New Guinea for humanitarian missions and committed American tax dollars to update military facilities there.

To Admiral Paparo, this growing network of partnerships and security agreements across thousands of miles of the Pacific is a direct result of what he calls China’s “revanchist, revisionist and expansionist agenda” in the region that has directly threatened its neighbors.

“I do believe that the U.S. and our allies and partners are playing a stronger hand and that we would prevail in any fight that arose in the Western Pacific,” the admiral said.

“It’s a hand that I would not trade with our would-be adversaries, and yet we’re also never satisfied with the strength of that hand and always looking to improve it.”

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What does Taiwan get from the foreign aid bill and why is the US economy among the biggest winners?

The sweeping foreign aid package passed by congress has drawn the ire of China, but billions of dollars will actually stay in the US

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen has praised the US Congress for passing a sweeping foreign aid package this week which included arms support for the island, and has drawn the ire of China.

After months of delays and contentious debate, the bill was signed into law by Joe Biden on Wednesday . Described as $95bn in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the legislation actually contains provisions that broadly affect many parts of the Asia-Pacific, while also spending billions of dollars at home in America.

House Republicans billed the $8.1bn for the Indo-Pacific as an effort to “counter communist China and ensure a strong deterrence in the region,” however the largest provision of funding is for projects in the US itself.

In the face of delayed shipbuilding projects, $3.3bn of the bill will go towards the US domestic submarine-building industry.

$1.9bn is designated for a Columbia-class submarine – America’s newest class of nuclear-powered submarine – the first of which is due to be delivered in 2027. Another $200m is designated for a Virginia-class submarine.

The vast majority of this money will be spent in the United States, with more than 16,000 suppliers across all 50 states set to benefit, according to Connor Fiddler at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“Nearly half of the Indo-Pacific appropriations directly reinforce the submarine industrial base,” Fiddler wrote in his analysis of the package . “While this investment will enhance deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, the immediate impact will be supporting the American economy.”

The submarine funding was a condition of congressional endorsement of the Aukus deal between the US, UK and Australia, and is aimed at ensuring the US can produce Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines for Australia without undermining its own capability requirements.

Another $2bn of funding in the aid package will go towards the foreign military financing program for Taiwan and other security partners in the Indo-Pacific, who the US says are “confronting Chinese aggression.”

According to US officials, the foreign financing program allows eligible partner nations to “purchase US defense articles, services, and training”.

A further $1.9bn will go towards defence related expenses provided to Taiwan and other regional partners, while $542m will specifically strengthen US military capabilities in the region.

On Wednesday, China criticised the package, saying that such funding was pushing Taiwan into a “dangerous situation.”

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the aid “seriously violates” US commitments to China and “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the US for latest-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams main battle tanks and the HIMARS rocket system, which the US has also supplied to Ukraine.

The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier even in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly demanded arms sales stop.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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WASHINGTON – The United States and Taiwan, under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO), will hold another in-person negotiating round for the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade in Taipei, Taiwan, beginning April 29, 2024.   The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will lead the U.S. delegation as the designated representative of AIT.  The U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant United States Trade Representative for China, Mongolia and Taiwan Affairs Terry McCartin and will include representatives from other U.S. government agencies.   The delegations are expected to discuss several of the trade areas set forth in the initiative’s negotiating mandate .   These meetings will be closed press. Additional details about subsequent negotiating rounds will be provided at a later date.   This negotiating round comes after the two sides concluded an initial agreement under the initiative covering customs administration and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, services domestic regulation, anticorruption, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.  As a result of this agreement, U.S. businesses will be able to bring more products to Taiwan and customers there, while creating more transparent and streamlined regulatory procedures that can facilitate investment and economic opportunities in both markets, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.   The first agreement was signed by representatives of AIT and TECRO on June 1, 2023. The text of this agreement can be found on USTR’s website .   These trade negotiations are being conducted consistent with the United States’ one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances.

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Taiwan reports Chinese military activity after Blinken leaves Beijing

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Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard

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China's plan to be the dominant power in space is moving at breathtaking speed. The US needs to wake up, officials say.

• China is intensifying its bid to supplant the US as a major space power. 
• It is "moving at breathtaking speed," according to the US Space Force commander.
• China could use its control of space to target US satellites. 

After a meeting with Japanese and South Korean officials in Tokyo on Friday, US Space Force commander Gen. Stephen Whiting warned about a growing threat.

China, he said, is "moving at breathtaking speed in space," and is developing a range of weapons that threaten America's space supremacy, reported Stars and Stripes.

"They're also using space to make their terrestrial forces — their army, their navy, their marine corps, their air force — more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging," he added. It's one of a series of warnings from top US military officials in recent months about the growing threat in space posed by China.

There is a very real risk, they say, that the US could soon lose its status as the world's dominant space power.

"We are at a pivotal moment in history," Troy Meink, principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and operates the US fleet of spy satellites, said at a recent event in Colorado, as quoted by Space.com.

"For the first time in decades, US leadership in space and space technology is being challenged," Meink added. "Our competitors are actively seeking ways to threaten our capabilities, and we see this every day."

They echo comments by Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations at the United States Space Force, who last year warned against taking US space supremacy for granted.

"I'm worried about a far more subtle form of complacency. One that grows out of the comfort of continuity, the comfort of our expertise, the comfort of our successes. What we have done and how we have done it has worked and worked well, but I fear we think it will work well forever," he said.

Space today is "far more contested and US access to space capabilities is not a given," Saltzman said.

US satellites under threat

In recent years, China has developed a sophisticated military program in space, where for decades, the US has been the dominant force.

Space is where military analysts believe the first shots could be fired in a war between major powers.

China has created technology capable of targeting US satellites, as well as for better monitoring Earth and developing coordination between land, sea, air, and space operations.

At a congressional hearing in February, Whiting said that China is also developing a "hypersonic glide vehicle" and other weapons capable of evading air defense systems and satellite warnings.

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Dominic Chiu, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, told Business Insider that plans for space warfare were at the heart of China's recent military reorganization.

"China's leadership believes elements such as space and cyber will play a bigger role, and that making them more operationally efficient is crucial to preparedness and success," he said.

The plans place China's aerospace units directly under the control of central command and mirror the US' creation of a Space Force under former President Donald Trump in 2018, said Chiu.

One of the main fronts in the rivalry is the race to the moon, and US officials are warning that China, under the guise of scientific research, could be planning on seizing control of regions of the lunar surface as part of its plans for military dominance.

With the Artemis mission, the US is planning on sending astronauts to the moon for the first time in 50 years. But China has its own moon landing program, and US lawmakers at a congressional hearing in January warned that delays to NASA's plans to get astronauts to the lunar surface by 2022 mean that China could get there first.

"The country that lands first will have the ability to set a precedent for whether future lunar activities are conducted with openness and transparency or in a more restricted manner," said Rep. Frank Lucas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of US Space Forces Indo-Pacific, told a conference in March that China could be planning to use its presence on the moon as part of covert plans to target US satellites.

"As in other domains, the US is the established power, and China is seeking to catch and, if possible, overtake it, using its race to the moon to increase funding," Graeme Thompson, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, told BI.

The US and allies monitor 'deep space' for threats

The US and its allies are responding to the threat by developing plans to monitor areas of space that China is seeking to dominate for potential threats.

In December, the AUKUS alliance, which comprises the US, Australia, and the UK, said it would develop radars to monitor threats in "deep space," around 22,000 miles from Earth.

"Both the US and China view outer space along with cyberspace as new and interlinked military domains, and both feature in US, UK, and Australian collaboration under the AUKUS agreement," said Thompson.

According to reports, the Pentagon is intensifying its bid to develop technology capable of countering China's plans to take out US satellites.

Tory Bruno, chief executive of United Launch Alliance, told NBC News that engineers are developing maneuverable satellites that could move out of the way of Chinese satellites that are fitted with robotic arms to take them out of orbit.

The stakes in the race for the dominance of space could not be higher, say experts. Whoever wins will not just have control over the moon, but will likely be the top power on Earth. And through complacency, America may fast lose its advantage, say critics.

"The truth is, whoever controls the space domain will dominate the future global economy," wrote analyst Arthur Herman for the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute in February.

"If America was the preeminent space power from Presidents John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, we've let our edge slip away, while China and Russia aim to displace us all together."

Watch: Why China launched military drills during Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan

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Blinken begins key China visit as tensions rise over new US foreign aid bill

Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves as he boards a plane, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to China. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

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SHANGHAI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a critical trip to China armed with a strengthened diplomatic hand following Senate approval of a foreign aid package that will provide billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform -– all areas of contention between Washington and Beijing.

Blinken arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday just hours after the Senate vote on the long-stalled legislation and shortly before President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law to demonstrate U.S. resolve in defending its allies and partners. Passage of the bill will add further complications to an already complex relationship that has been strained by disagreements over numerous global and regional disputes.

Still, the fact that Blinken is making the trip — shortly after a conversation between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a similar visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a call between the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs — is a sign the two sides are at least willing to discuss their differences.

Of primary interest to China, the bill sets aside $8 billion to counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the broader Indo-Pacific and gives China’s ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok with a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress. China has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, and immediately condemned the move as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok’s sale.

The bill also allots $26 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, and $61 billion for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s invasion. The Biden administration has been disappointed in China’s response to the war in Gaza and has complained loudly that Chinese support for Russia’s military-industrial sector has allowed Moscow to subvert Western sanctions and ramp up attacks on Ukraine.

Even before Blinken landed in Shanghai — where he will have meetings on Thursday before traveling to Beijing — China’s Taiwan Affairs Office slammed the assistance to Taipei, saying it “seriously violates” U.S. commitments to China, “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces” and pushes the self-governing island republic into a “dangerous situation.”

China and the United States are the major players in the Indo-Pacific and Washington has become increasingly alarmed by Beijing’s growing aggressiveness in recent years toward Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea .

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and has vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily boosted military support and sales for Taiwan, much to Chinese anger.

A senior State Department official said last week that Blinken would “underscore, both in private and public, America’s abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We think that is vitally important for the region and the world.”

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas.

In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate maritime activities by others in the sea, notably the Philippines and Vietnam. That was a major topic of concern this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

On Ukraine, which U.S. officials say will be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken’s visit, the Biden administration said that Chinese support has allowed Russia to largely reconstitute its defense industrial base, affecting not only the war in Ukraine but posing a threat to broader European security.

“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said last week.

China says it has the right to trade with Russia and accuses the U.S. of fanning the flames by arming and funding Ukraine. “It is extremely hypocritical and irresponsible for the U.S. to introduce a large-scale aid bill for Ukraine while making groundless accusations against normal economic and trade exchanges between China and Russia,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Tuesday.

On the Middle East, U.S. officials, from Biden on down, have repeatedly appealed to China to use any leverage it may have with Iran to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

While China appears to have been generally receptive to such calls — particularly because it depends heavily on oil imports from Iran and other Mideast nations — tensions have steadily increased since the beginning of the Gaza war in October and more recent direct strikes and counterstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Blinken has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East . He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, several times urging China to tell Iran to restrain the proxy groups it has supported in the region, including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would reiterate the U.S. interest in China using “whatever channels or influence it has to try to convey the need for restraint to all parties, including Iran.”

The U.S. and China are also at deep odds over human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as the fate of several American citizens that the State Department says have been “wrongfully detained” by Chinese authorities, and the supply of precursors to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl that is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.

China has repeatedly rejected the American criticism of its rights record as improper interference in its internal affairs. Yet, Blinken will again raise these issues, according to the State Department official.

Another department official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to preview Blinken’s private talks with Chinese officials, said China had made efforts to rein in the export of materials that traffickers use to make fentanyl but that more needs to be done.

The two sides agreed last year to set up a working group to look into ways to combat the surge of production of fentanyl precursors in China and their export abroad. U.S. officials say they believe they had made some limited progress on cracking down on the illicit industry but many producers had found ways to get around new restrictions.

“We need to see continued and sustained progress,” the official said, adding that “more regular law enforcement” against Chinese precursor producers “would send a strong signal of China’s commitment to address this issue.”