Democratic Sen. Ed Markey led the group that arrived Sunday. A spokesman for Markey, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed that lawmakers sought to “reaffirm United States support for Taiwan” and “encourage stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait.” “The team will meet with elected leaders and members of the private sector to discuss common interests, including reducing tensions across the Taiwan Strait and expanding economic cooperation, including investment in semiconductors,” the official said. The visit comes as China continues a military campaign of intimidation toward Taiwan that began after Pelosi’s visit. Beijing said on August 10 that military exercises around Taiwan, which began to “punish” the country for hosting Pelosi, had ended. But the People’s Liberation Army is still sending fighter jets and warships near Taiwan in what Taipei and Washington have denounced as an attempt to change the status quo at the flashpoint. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, 22 PLA aircraft and 6 PLA warships operated in the Taiwan Strait area on Sunday. It said 11 of the aircraft were active on Taiwan’s side of the middle line of the Straits, an unofficial stockpile that Beijing says was “wiped out” during the latest crisis. Taiwan’s government welcomed the visit by US lawmakers and said the delegation would meet with President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and members of Taiwan’s legislature’s foreign affairs and defense committee. House Democrats Don Beyer, John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal traveled with Markey, as did Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, the Republican House representative from American Samoa. “That the US Congress is reorganizing a heavyweight delegation to visit Taiwan as China continues to escalate regional tensions shows friendship unafraid of China’s threats and intimidation and underscores strong US support for Taiwan,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said. An opinion column published Sunday in the Chinese nationalist Global Times tabloid said the frequency of visits by US lawmakers and officials was “rising wildly”.

Until recently, lawmakers and cabinet members from the US and other democratic countries frequently visited Taiwan without repercussions from China. But Beijing has said it intends to step up its countermeasures. On Friday, China imposed sanctions on Lithuania’s deputy transport minister for visiting Taiwan earlier in the week. Kurt Campbell, the White House’s National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, told reporters on Friday that the US expects China’s “intensive pressure campaign” against Taiwan to “continue to unfold in the coming weeks and months.” with the intention of “intimidating and coercing Taiwan and undermining its resilience.” Campbell confirmed that US President Joe Biden discussed a possible bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a recent call between the two leaders and asked their teams to work out the details, but there was no update on the timing or the locations.