Taiwan official attacks China during US health secretary’s provocative visit
Taiwan’s foreign minister says China seeks to turn the self-ruled island into “the next Hong Kong,” amid a provocative visit by a high-level US official to the region.
Joseph Wu claimed during a meeting with US Health Secretary Alex Azar in Taipei on Tuesday that Taiwan lived under the threat of being turned into “the next Hong Kong.”
“Our lives have become increasingly difficult as China continues to pressure Taiwan into accepting its political conditions, conditions that will turn Taiwan into the next Hong Kong,” Wu claimed.
“The people of Taiwan are all too familiar with dealing with threats, be it military, diplomatic, or the threats of epidemics,” he boasted.
The senior US official arrived in Taipei for a three-day visit, the highest-level trip since Washington cut formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 in favor of Beijing. The visit was billed as an attempt to acquire Taiwan’s experiences in containing its coronavirus epidemic. And it came even though the United States has no diplomatic relations with Taipei by law.
China firmly opposes official exchanges between the US and Taiwan. Beijing views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province that should be reunited with the mainland under the internationally-recognized “One China” policy.
Tsai, who won a second term earlier this year, has rejected Beijing’s stance that Taiwan is part of “One China” and instead views the island as “already independent.”
The high-ranking US official’s visit to Taiwan coincides with Western-backed unrest over the enforcement of a new national security law in the semi-autonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong.
The law sparked anti-government protests in Hong Kong, with the critics calling the measure a blow to the semi-autonomous region’s powers and civil liberties. Beijing has, however, assured that the law targets a minority of troublemakers that disregard law and order in the Chinese financial hub.
The US, Britain, and other Western countries have openly criticized the Chinese law and voiced support for the anti-government riots in Hong Kong.
Beijing has slammed the UK and the US for their interference in the affairs of Hong Kong.
Relations between the US and China are already in tumult, with the two sides clashing over a wide range of issues, including trade and the coronavirus pandemic.
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