U.S. lawmakers visiting Taiwan say the United States supports efforts by Taiwan's government to pass a $40 billion special defense budget that is being stalled in the opposition-controlled parliament.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers are making their first trip to Taiwan under the new Trump administration a bipartisan one.

Russia and China helped each other expand their territorial reach, and democracies must push back against authoritarian states that threaten their rights and sovereignty, Taiwan’s outgoing foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has mistranslated an alert into English, saying China had launched a missile instead of a satellite and urging caution days before the island’s elections.

Taiwan's foreign minister says he doesn't know what countries might help it in the event of a war with China.

Honduras has established diplomatic ties with China after breaking off relations with Taiwan, which is increasingly isolated and now recognized by only 13 sovereign states.

Taiwan has warned that Chinese military drills aren’t just a rehearsal for an invasion of the self-governing island but also reflect ambitions to control large swaths of the western Pacific.

U_S_ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concluded her visit to Taiwan with a pledge that the American commitment to democracy on the self-governing island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.”.

A delegation of six U.S. lawmakers has arrived in Taiwan on a visit that has already been denounced by China.

In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu pose for a selfie with U.S. Under Secretary of State Keith Krach, right, during a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. Taiwan’s defense ministry said two bombers and 16 fighter jets from China crossed into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. Cabinet official to visit since the U.S. switched formal relations from Taiwan to China in 1979. China has increasingly relied on military threats and diplomatic isolation to pressure Taiwan.

(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)TAIPEI Taiwan sent COVID-19 assistance to foreign countries surreptitiously to avoid protests from China, its foreign minister said Tuesday during a meeting with the highest-level American official to visit the island in four decades. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has sought to isolate it diplomatically, including barring its participation in forums such as the World Health Assembly. Just 15 countries maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and China has sought to peel away its remaining allies. While the U.S. maintains only unofficial ties with Taiwan in deference to Beijing, it remains the island's most important ally and provider of defensive arms. Thus, Azar is the highest-level American official to visit Taiwan since their break in formal diplomatic ties in 1979.

TAIPEI China is sending military planes near Taiwan with increasing frequency in what appears to be a stepping up of its threat to use force to take control of the island, Taiwan's foreign minister said Wednesday. Such flights are more frequent than reported in the media and have become virtually a daily occurrence, Joseph Wu told reporters. Along with Chinese military exercises simulating an attack on Taiwan, the flights by China are causing major concern for Taiwan's government, Wu said. What it is doing now is unceasingly preparing to use force to resolve the Taiwan problem, Wu said. China claims the self-ruling island democracy as its own territory and threatens to use the People's Liberation Army to bring it under its control.

Peellden via Wikimedia CommonsTAIPEI - Kiribati has become the second nation in a week to drop Taiwan as a diplomatic ally and move towards Beijing, Taipei's foreign ministry announced Friday. It comes just four days after the Solomon Islands' government voted unanimously to recognize mainland China over Taiwan, a move which was condemned in Taipei and welcomed in Beijing. The loss of the Solomon Islands and Kiribati has left Taiwan with just 15 diplomatic allies. Taiwan and mainland China have been separately governed since the end of a bloody civil war in 1949. After the Solomon Islands cut relations this week, Tsai denounced Beijing for using "financial and political pressure" to suppress Taiwan's international relations.