WASHINGTON/TAIPEI - The White House will meet senior Taiwan officials next week in Washington for talks meant to be private to avoid an angry reaction from China, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and national security adviser Wellington Koo would lead the delegation, the newspaper said, citing five people familiar with the talks whom it did not name.
The Taiwanese team will meet United States deputy national security adviser Jon Finer and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, FT said.
The report came as the Pentagon’s top China official, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence Michael Chase, arrived in Taiwan, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, beginning a visit that could exacerbate tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Both Taiwan’s Defence Ministry and the Pentagon declined to comment on the trip, which was first reported by the Financial Times.
“We don’t have a comment on specific operations... but I would highlight that our support for, and defence relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
The sources offered no further details on Mr Chase’s travel, and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Speaking earlier, Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said he was “not very certain” about a report that the trip would take place.
Mr Chiu, asked whether Mr Chase would be coming, said “those who are friendly to us are very welcome”, he told reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session.
“I won’t explain the details,” he said. “I won’t explain until I get formal notification.”
Mr Chase would be the most senior US defence official known to have visited the island since 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic widely impacted US government travel.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly demanded that foreign officials not visit the democratically governed island.
China and the US are involved in a bitter dispute over the US military’s shooting down of what it called a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina this month. China says the balloon was for monitoring weather.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated that the government was firmly opposed to official interactions and military ties between the US and Taiwan.
China staged war games near Taiwan last August to express its anger at a Taipei visit by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Although the US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it is the island’s most important arms supplier and the two have a close security relationship.
In 2020, a two-star navy admiral overseeing US military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region made an unannounced visit to Taiwan.
Separately, a US bipartisan delegation is heading to Taiwan this weekend to bolster ties between Silicon Valley and Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, according to an announcement by Representative Ro Khanna, a member of the US House China select committee. REUTERS
