A US delegation will visit Taiwan in mid-January

Washington, January 4 – The American Institute in Taiwan, the US embassy on the island, said a US government delegation headed by Assistant Trade Representative Terry McCarten will visit Taiwan from January 14-17.

“The US delegation will be led by Assistant US Trade Representative Terry McCarten and will include representatives from several government agencies,” the statement said.

As part of the visit, the United States and local authorities in Taiwan intend to hold another round of trade talks in Taipei.

The situation around Taiwan escalated dramatically after a visit to the island in early August 2022 by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned Pelosi’s visit, seeing in this move the United States’ support for Taiwanese separatism, and conducted large-scale military exercises.

Official relations between the central government of the People’s Republic of China and its island province ceased in 1949 after Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT forces were defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, and moved to Taiwan. Commercial and informal contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties have started contacting through NGOs – the Beijing Association for the Development of Relationships Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taipei Cross-Strait Exchange Foundation.