US lawmakers touch down in Taiwan

via Twitter

A U.S. lawmaker delegation arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for a two-day visit during which they will meet President Tsai Ing-wen, the second high-level group to come amid continued military tensions with the island's giant neighbour China.

Beijing, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has been holding military drills around the island to express its anger at this month's visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said the delegation is being led by Senator Ed Markey, who is being accompanied by four other lawmakers on what it described as part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region.

Taiwan's presidential office said the group would meet Tsai on Monday morning.

"Especially at a time when China is raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the region with military exercises, Markey leading a delegation to visit Taiwan once again demonstrates the United States Congress' firm support for Taiwan," it said in a statement.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry published pictures of the group being met at Taipei's downtown Songshan airport having arrived on a U.S. air force transport jet.