Taiwan’s top security official visits US for talks, source says
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The US is Taiwan's most important global supporter and main arms supplier despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – The head of Taiwan’s National Security Council arrived in the United States for talks with President Donald Trump’s administration, a source familiar with the matter said on April 4, days after China concluded war games around Taiwan.
Mr Joseph Wu was leading a delegation for a meeting known as the “special channel”, the Financial Times reported earlier. It marked Mr Trump’s first use of the channel since returning to the White House on Jan 20.
Taiwan’s representative office in Washington said it was aware of the reports, but had no information to share.
Earlier this week, China’s military concluded two-day war games around Taiwan
Taiwan has denounced China for holding the drills. The United States, Taiwan’s most important international supporter and main arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations, condemned the latest exercises earlier this week.
Taiwan is only one area of tension between the US and China, whose ties have been tested by multiple issues such as human rights, the origins of Covid-19 and trade tariffs, including measures put in place by Mr Trump this week.
Mr Trump’s tariffs this week also upset Taiwan, which called them unreasonable.
Mr Trump has been critical of Taiwan for taking US semiconductor business, saying he wants the industry to re-base to the US. Taiwan’s top security official has said the Trump administration’s support for Taiwan remains “very strong”.
China has stepped up rhetoric against Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, calling him a “parasite” on April 1 in the wake of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Asia visit, during which he repeatedly criticised Beijing.
The White House and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Mr Lai as a “separatist”. Mr Lai, who won election in 2024, rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of Chinese invasion since 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, though the two sides have not exchanged fire in anger for decades. REUTERS
