“Proud to be the first governor to visit Taiwan before the pandemic,” Holcomb tweeted. He is scheduled to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and sign an economic cooperation agreement with cabinet officials on Monday before traveling to South Korea. A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers led by Keiji Furuya of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will also visit Taipei on Monday, and a US congressional delegation is due to arrive at the weekend, the fourth trip by US envoys in as many weeks. Beijing is expanding its campaign of military threats and sanctions in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip this month to any high-level foreign visits to Taiwan, testing governments’ willingness to risk falling out with China. Lawmakers and cabinet members from the US, Europe and Japan have been visiting Taiwan regularly for many years. Beijing has steadfastly opposed such exchanges, but has not retaliated with military threats or sanctions until recently. When a Japanese delegation visited on July 27, just a week before Pelosi’s visit, it did not provoke a harsh Chinese response. But when a Lithuanian deputy minister traveled to Taipei shortly after Pelosi left, Beijing slapped her with sanctions. When another US congressional delegation came last week, China announced another round of military exercises around Taiwan. Observers said Beijing was unlikely to succeed in further isolating Taiwan with such moves. “China is trying to prevent them from coming, but they are failing,” said Vincent Chao, a former head of the political department at Taiwan’s quasi-embassy in Washington, who is running in local elections this year. The Japanese government has not raised concerns about Furuya’s trip, considering it business as usual, officials said. But Tokyo is wary that tensions over Taiwan could upset the delicate balance in its relationship with China. “It is the 50th anniversary of Japan-China [diplomatic relations]. There is pressure from the business community, but we as diplomats also prefer a stable relationship with China,” said a senior government official. “From this perspective, we should not encourage Japanese lawmakers to visit Taiwan.” Japan has been one of the most vocal US allies in condemning China’s recent military exercises, especially after five missiles landed in the country’s exclusive economic zone. However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also stressed the need for the two countries to maintain dialogue. On Wednesday, Japan’s national security adviser Takeo Akiba held a seven-hour meeting with Yang Jiechi, China’s top foreign policy official, to discuss Taiwan, North Korea and Ukraine. As governments and public opinion in the US, Japan and Europe have turned more hostile to Beijing, democracies have engaged more with Taiwan to emphasize shared values ​​and draw on its experience of Chinese economic statecraft and campaigning. misinformation. As a result, the flow of Western visitors to Taipei is increasing.

Taiwan has this year hosted 14 parliamentary or government delegations from countries with which it does not have diplomatic relations, including 19 members of the US Congress. Since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, 58 members of Congress have visited, and the annual number has more than doubled during that time. Lawmakers and government officials from Central and Eastern Europe have also become frequent visitors, disenchanted with the benefits of economic engagement with China and pushing back against Beijing’s tough political demands. Another Lithuanian delegation is expected when the country opens its representative office in Taipei next week. A group of Canadian MPs and two delegations from the German parliament plan to visit in October.