This is a shift that risk to run out of ink in the next few days. The United States will send soon in Taiwan their delegation the most prominent since they have ceased, in 1979, to recognize diplomatically the island, a move that could worsen tensions between china and the us. The american office dealing with trade relations with Taiwan has confirmed that the u.s. secretary of Health, Alex Azar, would take the head of the delegation who will visit the island. "This brand (...) the first visit of a member of the government in six years," said the american Institute in Taiwan, adding that no member of the u.s. government to such a rank had made " since 1979 ". It is this year that the United States had broken their diplomatic relations with Taipei to recognize the communist government based in Beijing as the sole representative of China. They remain, however, with a certain ambiguity, an ally to the most powerful of the island territory and its main arms supplier.
Taiwan has confirmed the next visit, to the effect that Alex Azar would encounter on this occasion the chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, the bête noire of the communist leaders, the chinese. "The minister Azar has long been a close friend of Taiwan ", commented in a press release the ministry, stating that this visit was "proof of the solid foundation of mutual trust" between Washington and Taipei. Neither Taiwan nor the United States have not specified the date of the visit.
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China, which considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, on Wednesday accused the United States of " put peace in danger ". "China is firmly opposed to official contacts between the United States and Taiwan ", recalled to the press the spokesman of the chinese ministry of foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, stating that Beijing had issued a protest to the administration Trump. Washington must avoid " serious harm to sino-us relations as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan strait ", he added. The announcement of the visit occurs in the period of degradation almost daily relations between Beijing and Washington, around topics such as the new national security law to hong Kong, the rights of the muslim minority uighur in China, trade and technology.
"Trust"
In spite of the bilateral ties, the United States were traditionally conservative in nature formal contacts bilateral. However, that changed with Donald Trump, who was close to Taiwan as relations deteriorated with Beijing on a number of subjects. The remarkable success of the island against the Covid-19 and its affirmation as one of the democracies the most progressive Asia have also earned broad support on the political chessboard american.
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Shortly after his election, Donald Trump had become the first american president to meet with his counterpart from taiwan since 1979, when Ms. Tsai had called to congratulate him. The administration Trump has multiplied the sales of military equipment, sophisticated on the island, including the one last summer, the last of the hunters. The last visit to Taiwan of a member of the american government had been that, in 2014, the head of the Agency of protection of the environment. The previous one dated back to 2000, when the secretary of Transportation Bill Clinton had visited on the island.
A tour linked to the Covid-19
In their press releases, Washington and Taipei have the visit of Alex Azar as related to the pandemic. In spite of its geographical proximity and trade with the mainland of China, where the epidemic, Taiwan has registered less than 500 cases of the coronavirus and 7 deaths, and this, thanks to a strategy very thorough screening and tracing of contacts that had had the sick. The island has also taken a very early initiative to close its borders. "Taiwan has been a model of transparency and cooperation in the area of health during the pandemic Covid-19, and well before that," said Alex Azar.
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Taiwan is not recognized as an independent State by the UN. And Beijing's threat to use force in the event of a formal proclamation of independence by Taipei or foreign intervention, especially from Washington.
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