A US cabinet member heaped praise on Taiwan’s democracy and its success in battling the coronavirus as he met the island’s leader on Monday …
A US cabinet member heaped praise on Taiwan’s democracy and its success in battling the coronavirus as he met the island’s leader on Monday during a historic visit that China has slammed as a threat to peace. Health Secretary Alex Azar is in Taipei for a three-day visit billed as the highest level visit from the United States since it switched diplomatic recognition from the island to China in 1979. His trip comes as relations between the United States and China are in tumult, with the two sides clashing over a wide range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic. Authoritarian China insists Taiwan is its own territory and vows to one day seize it. It has condemned Azar’s visit and called for it to be cancelled. On Monday morning, Azar met President Tsai Ing-wen, who advocates the island being recognised as a sovereign nation and is loathed by China’s leaders. « Taiwan’s 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’s society and culture, » Azar told Tsai. Health Secretary Alex Azar (2nd L) is the highest ranking US official to visit Taiwan since 1979 when Washington switched recognition to Beijing Handout, TAIWAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS/AFP Tsai thanked the US for supporting its bid to be part of the World Health Organization (WHO), a body Beijing keeps the island frozen out of.
