Azar visit to Taiwan is fresh thorn in prickly US-China ties
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — An ongoing visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan will likely exacerbate mounting tensions between Washington and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.
From the South China Sea to TikTok, Hong Kong and trade, China and the U.S. find themselves at loggerheads just three months ahead of the American presidential election. In a throwback to the Cold War, the two recently ordered tit-for-tat closures of consulates in Houston and Chengdu and rhetorical sniping has become a daily occurrence.
The Trump administration added to those frictions by sending Azar to Taiwan, making him the highest-level U.S. official to visit the self-governing island since formal diplomatic relations were severed in 1979 in deference to China.
“This visit represents an acknowledgement of the United States and Taiwan’s deep friendship and partnership across security, economics, health care, and democratic open transparent values,” Azar said Monday in Taipei, the capital.
Beijing has been ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan, but that’s just one area in which its increasingly assertive foreign policy and the accompanying push-back from Washington have taxed diplomacy on both sides.
Washington drew Beijing’s ire last month when it parted with years of ambiguity by explicitly denying most of China’s maritime claims in the strategically vital South China Sea. China says it owns the waterway and that activity in the area by the U.S. Navy, including sailing ships close to Chinese-controlled islands, threatens regional peace and stability.
Other disputes center on economic and human rights issues.
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