"Taiwan is our strongest partner in the Indo-Pacific Region. Regular high-level visits to Taipei are long-standing U.S. policy," Blackburn said. "I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island."
Blackburn, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Commerce committees, joins GOP senate colleague Rick Scott of Florida and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the latest member of Congress to visit the island.
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A delegation of five House and Senate members led by Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., also just made the trip, according to Reuters.
"Members of Congress and elected officials have gone to Taiwan for decades and will continue to do so, and this is in line with our long-standing One China policy," a White House National Security Council spokesperson stated.
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The Taiwanese foreign ministry said Blackburn would meet President Tsai Ing-wen, top security official Wellington Koo, and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu during her trip, which ends this weekend.
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"The two sides will exchange views extensively on issues such as Taiwan-U.S. security and economic and trade relations," the ministry stated.
Blackburn arrived in Taiwan's capital Taipei on board a U.S. military aircraft, live television footage from the downtown Songshan Airport showed. She was welcomed on the airport tarmac by Douglas Hsu, director general of Taiwan's foreign affairs ministry, Blackburn's office said.
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China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory against the strong objections of the democratically elected government in Taipei, launched military drills near the island after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in early August.
Taiwan's presidential office said Tsai will meet Blackburn on Friday morning.
Spokesman for China's Embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu promised that Beijing would take unspecified "resolute countermeasures" in response to what he called the U.S. "provocations."
A U.S. lawmaker on the Senate Commerce and Armed Services committees arrived in Taiwan on Thursday on the third visit by a U.S. dignitary this month, defying pressure from Beijing to halt the trips.
Spokesman for China's Embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu vowed that Beijing would take unspecified "resolute countermeasures" in response to what he called the U.S. "provocations."
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Pelosi's visit infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, and by cutting some lines of dialogue with Washington.
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Pelosi was followed around a week later by a group of five other U.S. lawmakers, with China's military responding by carrying out more exercises near Taiwan.
The Biden administration has sought to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing, inflamed by the visits, from boiling over into a conflict, echoing that such congressional trips are regular.
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