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Mike Gallagher, head of the US House China committee, will visit Taipei next week with a group of lawmakers in a show of support for Lai Ching-te ahead of his May inauguration as president of Taiwan.
The hawkish Wisconsin Republican will arrive in Taiwan on February 21, according to three people familiar with his plan, including two Taiwanese officials who expect him to lead a delegation of seven US lawmakers.
The visit comes one month after the election victory by Lai, the current Taiwanese vice-president who Beijing denounces as a “dangerous separatist”.
Washington has warned China not to engage in aggressive activity towards Taiwan in the run-up to the inauguration, when Lai will succeed Tsai Ing-wen as president. China in turn has repeated its long-standing criticism that the US should not meddle in Taiwan, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.
China cut off communications between the US and Chinese militaries in 2022 after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Beijing agreed to restart those communication channels after President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit in San Francisco in November.
Gallagher’s delegation is expected to meet Lai in addition to Han Kuo-yu, the newly elected legislative Speaker from the opposition Kuomintang, a party Beijing is more comfortable with because it views Taiwan as part of a greater Chinese nation.
Gallagher’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But he recently confirmed to the Hugh Hewitt podcast that he planned to visit this spring following a report in the Financial Times about his planned travel to Taipei.
Gallagher and his committee, which was formed a year ago to intensify the focus on threats from China, have been vocal in supporting Taiwan, particularly as the Chinese military has maintained its assertive stance around the island. Beijing is likely to oppose the visit.
Gallagher announced last week that he would not seek re-election, in a move that was welcomed by some US companies who were increasingly anxious about becoming a target of the committee. The China panel has in recent months stepped up scrutiny of US financial groups and other entities with operations or investments in China.
In the wake of the election, Mike Johnson, the US Republican Speaker, said he would ask the Republican chairs of several congressional committees to visit Taiwan, saying it would underscore the US commitment to Taiwanese “security and democracy”.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing “firmly opposes the US having any form of official interaction with Taiwan and interfering in Taiwan affairs in any way or under any pretext”.
“The US needs to exercise extreme prudence in handling Taiwan-related issues, and must not obscure and hollow out the one-China principle in any form or send any wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson.
