US Lawmakers, Nvidia Boss Visit Taiwan After Chinese Drills
(Bloomberg) -- A bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang arrived separately in Taiwan on Sunday, a day after China ended its biggest military exercise in a year around the island.
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The delegation was led by Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It was the first congressional group to visit Taiwan since the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te on May 20.
Lai is scheduled to meet with the lawmakers on Monday to discuss peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, Taiwan-US trade relations and other issues, according to a readout from his office.
Also in the group were Representative Young Kim, Republican of California; Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina; Representative Jimmy Panetta, Democrat of California; Representative Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky, and Representative Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of Pennsylvania.
The US State Department on Saturday accused China of “military provocations” for staging expansive military exercises around Taiwan in the wake of the Lai inauguration.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s Huang landed in Taipei on Sunday evening, local cable news station TVBS reported. He is expected to make public appearances in an upcoming tech expo in Taipei. Huang has frequently mentioned the critical role Taiwan plays in the global AI supply chain, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. makes the bulk of the world’s cutting-edge chips, including those designed by Nvidia.
“Taiwan is at the epicenter of the world’s technology supply chain,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on May 20. “The technology industry depends very heavily on Taiwan and continues to for some time.”
The trip is part of a broader visit by the delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, according to the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy in Taipei.
(Adds context of regional visit in final paragraph. A previous version of the story corrected the spelling of Republican.)
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