《TAIPEI TIMES》US House committee on China plans Taiwan visit

By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter

A US House of Representatives special committee on China is planning to visit Taiwan in a few months, Nikkei Asia reported yesterday.

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The report came amid rising tension between Washington and Beijing after an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted over the US and later shot down.

US Representative Rob Wittman, a member of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party （CCP）, told the Japanese news magazine that he and other committee members are in talks on a possible trip to Taiwan.

“We know that will infuriate the Chinese, but I think it’s incredibly important for us to do that [visit Taiwan], because you have to send the signal that we’re strongly on the side of Taiwan,” Wittman said.

The delegation sent by the committee might hold a field hearing in Taiwan if the planned visit is realized, he said.

Wittman last month told Washington-based think tank the Project 2049 Institute that US Representative Mike Gallagher hoped to hold hearings in Taiwan, “as it would be meaningful to the world as well as Taiwan.”

Gallagher chairs the committee, which was founded last month and is scheduled to start officially by the end of this month.

It would examine the CCP from various angles including national security, economy and human rights, Nikkei Asia reported.

By holding hearings on policy issues and proposed bills, the committee can make policy recommendations on China to other committees in the US House of Representatives, it added.

Other high-profile US politicians reported to be considering a visit to Taiwan include US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy and US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, who has said that he was planning to lead a delegation to Taiwan this spring.

Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim （蕭美琴） last week said that there was no new information about McCarthy’s possible visit.

A TVBS poll released on Friday showed that 56 percent of respondents said they would welcome McCarthy’s visit, while 23 percent did not.

The survey, conducted from Monday last week to Thursday, was based on telephone interviews from 1,171 Taiwanese aged 20 or older. It has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES