Tensions between the United States and China are continuing to escalate with the US in talks to visit Taiwan next month as China ramps up …
Tensions between the United States and China are continuing to escalate with the US in talks to visit Taiwan next month as China ramps up its encroachment in Hong Kong. The New York Times reported Friday that Environmental Protection Administrator Andrew Wheeler plans to visit the island, and Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang confirmed a visit was in the works. “We’d welcome a visit by the head of the U.S. EPA at the invitation of Foreign Minister Joseph Wu for bilateral discussions on international cooperation on environmental issues,” Su said. “It will further improve ties between the two sides.” In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar became the highest-ranking US official to travel to Taiwan since the US broke off ties with Taipei in 1979. A month later, Undersecretary of State Keith Krach visited Taiwan. Both visits provoked aggressive reactions from Beijing, sending Chinese military aircraft over the median line of the Taiwan Strait during each visit, as Taiwan becomes another flashpoint between the world’s two largest economies. China’s ruling Communist Party in Beijing claims democratically ruled Taiwan is a “rogue province” and does not acknowledge Taiwan’s sovereignty.
