China says it has conducted military drills around Taiwan on Friday as a U.S. Congressional delegation visited the island in a show of support to a fellow democracy, with Beijing blaming the lawmakers for raising tensions with their “provocative” trip.
China’s military sent frigates, bombers and fighter planes to the East China Sea and the area around Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command said, in a statement released as the lawmakers were holding a news conference in Taipei.
China’s Defence Ministry, in a separate statement, said the U.S. visit was “deliberately provocative” and had “led to further escalation of tension in the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan is a frequent source of tension between Beijing and Washington.
Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham told Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen during the delegation’s meeting with her that the war in Ukraine and provocative behavior by China have united U.S. opinion in a way not seen before.
Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the technology hub is a “country of global significance” and its security has implications for the world.
The bipartisan group of six lawmakers arrived for their two-day visit on Thursday, in a previously unannounced trip.
Such visits, and a reference to Taiwan as a “country,” always anger Beijing, which dismisses any suggestion that Taiwan is a country. China regards the island as one of its provinces.
The United States has no formal relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan but is its most important international backer and arms supplier.
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