Amidst the perturbingly rising cases of the coronavirus infection in the United States, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar met the Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on Monday. Taiwan has been successfully enforcing mitigatory efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
Azar is the senior most official to have visited Taiwan in 40 years. While greeting the Taiwanese president, he praised her government for successfully tackling the situation in her country and extended the steadfast support of the Trump administration to the government.
Azar told Tsai, “It’s a true honour to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan.” Historically speaking, the United States had broken up official relationship with the island country in 1979 to support China. The Chinese administration claims Taiwan as its own territory despite the island having a democratic setup.
In the wake of the recent embitterment between Beijing and Washington over the coronavirus and the new national security law in Hong Kong, the Trump administration has gone ahead extending its full support to Taiwan and expressing its desire to collaborate with the country in sharing knowledge and efforts directed at the mitigation of the health crisis in the US and the world. This move has not gone down well with the Chinese authorities, who have condemned Azar’s visit as a disruption of “peace and stability” in the island nation.
China had warned the US to not send any national security official to Taiwan, but Washington’s apparent crossing of this red line by the latest Taiwan visit has irked Beijing. Responding to China’s agitation and accusations. Douglas Paal, a former head of Washington’s existing embassy in Taiwan, has said that the US has respected China’s red line by sending its Health Secretary to Taiwan and not including any national security official in the visit.
The purpose of the visit has been stated to be in the larger interest of the global community as talks regarding the present health concerns in view of the pandemic would transpire between the two officials. President Tsai told the press that the visit was emblematic of “a huge step forward in anti-pandemic collaborations between our countries.”
The discussions would include research collaborations in the space of vaccine development and medical research into the current health emergency. The visit of the US Health Minister is scheduled to last for three days, which would include talks with Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
The US has till date exceeded any other nation in the number of recorded Covid-19 infections and deaths. The situation in the States is critical and the need for a substantial containment plan is urgent. Taiwan’s effective state measures to battle the pandemic have proved successful insofar as the number of cases in the country have remained far lower than its neighboring nations. The country has recorded 480 cases and deaths till date.
Moreover, Taiwan had shown its sense of obligation towards the US for supporting Taiwan’s campaign to attend the meetings of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization’s (WHO), since Taiwan is not a member-country of the WHO due to China’s objections. President Tasi called such cavils “a violation of the universal rights to health.”
