A U.S. delegation arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday to demonstrate support for the island nation, drawing swift condemnation from China, which said the efforts were “bound to fail.”
The delegation deployed by President Biden was led by former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen and included four other former senior security and military officials, Reuters reported.
The group will meet President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday and were greeted by Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
The group was sent to “demonstrate our continued robust support for Taiwan,” a U.S. official told Reuters, amid increasing Chinese aggression in airspace around the country.
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang called the visit “a very good thing,” adding it shows “the importance both of the Taiwan-U.S. relationship and Taiwan’s position.”
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, while the democratically-run island says it is an independent entity.
“The will of the Chinese people to defend our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is immovable. Whoever United States sends to show support for Taiwan is bound to fail,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in regards to the U.S. delegation visit, according to Reuters.
The visit follows China sending planes into Taiwan’s defense zone and a U.S. warship going through the Taiwan Strait.
Concerns about Chinese incursions into Taiwan have also escalated as the world watches Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow claims as part of its historical territory.