Rep. Mike Gallagher meets with President Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan

A U.S. congressional delegation led by Rep. Mike Gallagher met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on Thursday in a show of support for the island.

HONG KONG — A U.S. congressional delegation led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei on Thursday in a show of support for the Beijing-claimed democracy.

Gallagher, the head of the House select committee on competition with China, traveled to the island with four other lawmakers as part of a larger visit to the Asia-Pacific region, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy.

The status of Taiwan is among the biggest flashpoints in relations between Beijing and Washington, which has no official ties with the island but is its most important international backer. In recent years the island has been under growing military, economic and diplomatic pressure from China, which has not ruled out the use of force in unifying with it.

“The United States, Democrats and Republicans, stands with Taiwan, for your freedom and for ours,” Gallagher, a strong critic of China and four-term congressman who announced this month that he would not run for re-election, said at a news conference. “For as Taiwan goes, so goes the world.”

In their meeting earlier in the day, Tsai told the lawmakers she hoped to see even more exchanges between Taiwan and the U.S. this year.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taiwan-china-mike-gallagher-congressional-delegation-rcna139889

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