U.S. announces highest-level official visit to Taiwan since 1979

“U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar will visit Taiwan in coming days, his office said on Tuesday, making the highest-level visit by a U.S. official in four decades,” reports Reuters.

The move has, of course, angered China, although in a reverse of the usual media formulation about such actions, Taiwan-based journalist Chris Horton notes that it will “reassure Taiwan.”

• Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文 Cài Yīngwén) tweeted that she looks “forward to welcoming Secretary Azar…sharing how the Taiwan Model works to contain the spread of COVID19 and contribute to global health.”
• Sharing COVID-19 best practices is the stated reason for the visit, although given the Trump administration’s apparent lack of interest in containing the pandemic, a cynic may be forgiven for doubting that this is the real motivation for the visit.

“Watch this space,” commented New York Times reporter Ed Wong: “There is lots of speculation in Washington over whether there is something big building on the administration’s Taiwan policy.”