China slams US health secretary\u2019s Taipei visit
\nTLTP
\nTAIPEI
\nUS Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the most senior official to visit Taiwan in 40 years, met the island\u2019s President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, praising her government\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic and offering US President Donald Trump\u2019s strong support.
\nChina, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own, has condemned Azar\u2019s trip as a threat to \u201cpeace and stability\u201d and promised unspecified retaliation.
\nWashington broke off official ties with Taipei in 1979 in favour of Beijing. The Trump administration has made strengthening its support for the island a priority, and has also boosted arms sales.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan,\u201d Azar told Tsai in the Presidential Office, standing in front of two Taiwanese flags.
\nAzar is visiting to strengthen economic and public-health cooperation with Taiwan and support Taiwan\u2019s international role in fighting the pandemic, but the visit is taking place against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the United States and China over issues not only relating to the pandemic, but also trade, Hong Kong and the crackdown in Xinjiang.
\n\u201cTaiwan\u2019s response to COVID-19 has been among the most successful in the world, and that is a tribute to the open, transparent, democratic nature of Taiwan\u2019s society and culture,\u201d he told Tsai.
\nDouglas Paal, a former head of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington\u2019s de facto embassy, said the Trump administration was still paying heed to China\u2019s red line – that no US official handling national security visited Taiwan – but the timing of the visit was key.
\n\u201cSending him to Taiwan shows respect for the old framework while putting a finger in China\u2019s eye at the same time,\u201d said Paal.
\n\u201cThe fact that they didn\u2019t choose to send a national security adviser or someone else suggests they are trying to come as close as possible to China\u2019s red line but don\u2019t want to cross it.\u201d
\nThe US, which has had more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country, has repeatedly clashed with China over the pandemic, accusing Beijing of lacking transparency.
\nTaiwan\u2019s early and effective steps to fight COVID-19 have kept its case numbers far lower than those of its neighbours, with 480 infections, including seven deaths. Most cases have been imported.
\nTsai told Azar his visit represented \u201ca huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries\u201d, mentioning areas of cooperation including vaccine and drug research and production.
\nAzar\u2019s visit will last three days and will also include talks with his health counterpart Chen Shih-chung and Taiwan\u2019s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
\nThe last US cabinet minister to visit Taiwan was in 2014 when the then-head of the Environmental Protection Agency led a delegation.
\nMeanwhile, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar\u2019s ongoing visit to Taiwan, urging the U.S. side to stop official interactions and contact of all kinds, as well as the upgrading of substantive relations with the island.
\nThe remarks were made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian when responding to a query about Azar\u2019s ongoing visit at a press briefing held in Beijing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China slams US health secretary\u2019s Taipei visit TLTP TAIPEI US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the most senior official to visit Taiwan in 40 years, met the island\u2019s President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday, praising her government\u2019s response to the coronavirus pandemic and offering US President Donald Trump\u2019s strong support. China, which claims the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n