Posted on 08/06/2020 3:23:47 AM PDT by USA Conservative
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar is planning to lead a delegation to Taiwan, marking the highest-level visit by a U.S. Cabinet member to the country in roughly 40 years, and a move that is likely to anger China, the agency’s statement reads.
The visit is intended to demonstrate President Donald Trump’s support for Taiwan, particularly for being a “model of transparency and cooperation in global health during the COVID-19 pandemic and long before it,” Azar says in the statement.
“I look forward to conveying President Trump’s support for Taiwan’s global health leadership and underscoring our shared belief that free and democratic societies are the best model for protecting and promoting health.”
Azar will meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the island’s foreign and health ministers and visit the Central Epidemic Command Center, which led the efforts to contain the pandemic, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said according to the Wall Street Journal.
China’s Foreign Ministry official Wang Wenbin objected to the visit with Taiwan, which China views as its territory and a sensitive subject in China-U.S. relations.
“The Taiwan issue is the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Wednesday according to the Journal.
In order to avoid “seriously damaging China-U.S. relations as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” China urges the U.S. to cease all contacts with Taipei.
Prior to Azar’s planned visit to Taiwan, previous administrations have sent lower-level cabinet secretaries. Although President Trump has adhered to the pattern of past administrations in relations with Taiwan so as to not derail trade deal negotiations with China, U.S.-China tensions have escalated in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic and reports of human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.
The Administration also approved a $180 million arms sale to Taiwan in May, which Beijing denounced and warned that additional arms sales could “further harm China-US relations and cross-straits peace and stability,” echoing the Wednesday statement made by China’s Foreign Ministry.
“In contrast to authoritarian systems, U.S. and Taiwan societies and economies are uniquely equipped to drive global progress in areas such as medicine and science to help the world tackle emerging threats,” the statement from Azar says.
I’m all in favor of any move that will anger CommunistChina.
I hate that “don’t make China angry” narrative.
“Who cares what China thinks?”
China can be thought of as the abusive father in a family situation. The daughter does something he told her not to, so he kills her puppy to teach her a lesson. Yes, it’s literally that bad. For example, China might arrest a few Taiwanese, charge them with something and then execute them after they are no longer useful hostages. They did this when Canada arrested the CEO of Huawei. They haven’t executed him yet, but he is still useful.
That doesn’t mean we should avoid making dad angry. It means that when we do it, and we know what’s going to do it, we should REALLY do it. Something like flying in a few hundred aircraft fully armed and ready to fight, but flown by contractors until Taiwan can use them themselves. (Yes, that would be extremely difficult to do. But you get the idea.)
Russia CLEANED Chernobyl and admitted.
C_I_A began WW3, murdered millions with the China PLAGUE,
and laughed as they avoid what they truly deserve.
Nice idea, hard to do but possible!
We can infuriate China all we want. What can they do?
Invade Taiwan is the only card they can play. China SAYS they want to invade, but the international fallout would be immense and victory would not be guaranteed..
The U.S. is sorta bound by an agreement to recognize Taiwan as part of China but I suspect that agreement is already trashed. How much military support we throw behind Taiwanese independence is key to this conflict and I suspect Uncle Donald really likes Taiwan.
Trump is the first president in a very long time to say and do things that irritate the Chinese government and not take their shenanigans quietly.
Trump's leadership has emboldened other countries to speak up. This is incredibly important, because the Chinese Communist Party has the impression that they can get away with most things if they do it in a gradual, incremental manner.
Even the Indian Prime Minister went to the border and gave a speech to their soldiers stationed there about the expansionist nature of the Chinese leadership and compared them to Japan and Germany of the recent past. The Chinese government got into a tizzy due to the use of the term "expansionist", even though Modi did not name China- must have hit a nerve.
The world needs to stop tip-toeing around China's bullying and expansionist ambitions. It is time to say that Tibet is occupied territory.
We do recognize the “One China” policy, but U.S. law requires us to respond to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion.
Granted, a soft administration may look the other way.
I really like Trump!
China is suffering presently from so many problems, bad problems, that the anger will be merely proforma.
I believe Taiwan is one of the countries using HCQ + + and has single-digit deaths per 100,000 from COVID19, where the U.S. is showing triple-digit deaths per 100,000.
Can’t wait to see how the Ivermectin trial is going to do to those numbers given its preliminary outcomes.
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