Markey’s visit to Taiwan came just weeks after House Speaker and fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi traveled there, prompting condemnation and military exercises around the island nation from China.
“Our friends in East Asia and the Pacific are dealing with the convergence of multiple existential threats, including North Korea's nuclear program, the impacts of climate change, of which they are bearing the brunt, and the government of China's increasingly bellicose threats, debt trap diplomacy, and exploits of authoritarian surveillance and censorship," said the senator. "They need the United States to stay engaged in the region now more than ever.”
Markey sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and chairs its East Asia, Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy subcommittee. He said there is no question that China, which has long laid claim to Taiwan, is a bad actor in the region.
“However, our partners and allies do not want to be pawns in a competition or conflict between the United States and China," said Markey. "Our policies in the Indo-Pacific must focus on engagement with each individual country on its own merits, not simply through the lens of China. We should be focused on building partnerships based on the shared values of human rights, free speech, democracy, and a commitment to a free and open Indo Pacific. And we need to back up our commitment to consistent engagement in the region with increased investments.”
Despite the negative reaction from Beijing and concerns that the practice could be moving the region closer to China, Markey said he sees no reason for American politicians to stop visiting Taiwan.
“Our policy should be to focus on maintaining peace, on continuing to build our economic and cultural ties with Taiwan, to help them prepare their own self-defense, and sustaining the decades-long cross-strait deterrence that has allowed Taiwan to prosper into one of the most successful nations in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
Markey said his congressional delegation had informed the Biden administration of its plan ahead of last week’s visit.
“We were not dissuaded from taking the trip by the administration," he said. "We made it very clear that our goal was to attempt to maintain peaceful relations between Taiwan and China, to ensure that we put policies in place that would help to continue that policy that has been successful since 1979, that a policy of strategic ambiguity and a One China policy has worked and it should be maintained. And with that, we went off on this on this mission, and we have returned, I think, having been successful in helping to advance those goals.”
Markey was asked what recourse he thought the United States should take if China chose to invade Taiwain.
“I think we have to ensure that there is a clear message that's being sent to the Chinese that we are going to help to provide the deterrent military capability to the Taiwan government, and that we're going to see a determined increase in the economic partnership that we have with Taiwan," said Markey. "Taiwan is the ninth largest trading partner of the United States of America. We're dependent upon semiconductors, which come from Taiwan to the United States. 90% of the chips come from Taiwan. And so we need them for our economy, we need them for our defense, we need them for our health care system.”
You can watch the full press conference here.
