Beijing strongly condemns U.S. visit to Taiwan region

Beijing on Thursday strongly condemned and firmly rejected the visit of United States Congress officials to China's Taiwan region, saying it violated the one-China principle and broke the U.S. promise to only maintain non-official relations with the island.

A delegation of U.S. bipartisan House lawmakers, led by Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat from Florida who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday.

The visiting Congressmen met with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen and will stay until Friday.

The group was the latest in a string of senior officials from the U.S. to visit the island since early August.

"China urges the U.S. to immediately stop any official ties with Taiwan and not send any wrong signals to the 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a daily news briefing.

Mao reiterated that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, adding that the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.

Mao urged relevant U.S. politicians to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques.

"China will not waver in opposing 'Taiwan independence' separatist activities and external interference," she vowed, noting China would continue to firmly safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Earlier reports said that the U.S. and Taiwan would soon start formal talks on a trade and economic initiative that was unveiled in June.

During talks with her U.S. guests, Tsai expressed confidence that Taiwan and the U.S. could reach a high-standard trade agreement through the initiative.

In response, Murphy told Tsai she supported such an agreement.