US to send another top official for Taiwan visit in defiance of China
Taiwan and the US are in talks to set yet another visit to the self-ruled island by a senior American official, in what would be the third such a move in defiance of China this year.
US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler plans to pay a three-day visit to Taiwan next month.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang confirmed the report on Friday, saying Wheeler “will come to Taiwan, to have bilateral discussions on international cooperation on environmental protection issues.”
The trip will “be further beneficial to the relationship between the two countries,” he added.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu had extended an invitation to Wheeler last year, according to the ministry, which said it would announce details at an “appropriate time.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office said in a statement later Friday that Taipei was still in discussions with Washington over the visit.
In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesman reacted to the report, reiterating that Beijing opposes any official exchanges between the Washington and Taipei.
“China will make a legitimate and necessary response in accordance with how the situation develops,” Zhao Lijian said, urging Washington to fully recognize the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue.
China maintains sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, and under the “One China” policy, nearly all countries worldwide — including the US — recognize that sovereignty.
Washington, however, has been courting Taiwan in an attempt to irk Beijing. It regularly conducts provocative maneuvers around the self-governed island, particularly by sailing its warships through the sensitive and strategic Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan from mainland China.
In August, Washington sent Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taipei. A month later, Undersecretary of State Keith Krach visited the island.
China reacted with anger on both occasions, describing it as a political stunt aimed at promoting Taiwan’s attempts to gain independence from the mainland.
The planned visit is expected to deal yet another blow to the already-troubled relations between Washington and Beijing, which are locking horns over a range of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, trade, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
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