Second trip to Taiwan by US diplomat raises China tensions

A TOP US diplomat arrived in Taiwan yesterday, marking the second visit of a senior Trump administration official to the country in two months, at a time of historically bad relations between Washington and Beijing.

Keith Krach, under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, will attend a memorial service this weekend for Lee Teng-hui, the former president known as Taiwan’s “father of democracy”.

Mark Esper, the US secretary of defence, had announced on Wednesday an ambitious plan to expand the US navy with a range of unmanned and autonomous ships, submarines and aircraft to confront the growing maritime challenge from China.

The Pentagon chief said a review of naval power, dubbed “Future Forward”, had laid out a “game-changer” plan that would expand the US fleet to more than 355 ships, from the current 293.

The plan, which requires adding tens of billions of dollars to the US navy’s budget between now and 2045, is aimed at maintaining superiority over Chinese naval forces.

“The future fleet will be more balanced in its ability to deliver lethal effects from the air, from the sea, and from under the sea,” Gen Esper said.

In a separate move, the US plans to sell as many as seven major weapons systems, including mines, cruise missiles and drones, to Taiwan, four people familiar with the talks told Reuters.

The pursuit of seven sales at once would be a departure from previous US policies, which has spaced out the supply of weapons to Taiwan in order to minimise tensions with Beijing.

Mr Krach’s visit coincides with a call from Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister, for the international community to defend the region and his country from “expansionist” Chinese actions.

Mr Krach’s Taiwan trip, which may include talks to nurture bilateral economic ties, will rile China, which has warned the US on multiple occasions against supporting the island nation, which it claims as its own and seeks to annex and isolate on the global stage.

A visit last month by Alex Azar, the US health secretary, prompted pushback, and Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said this visit “seriously violates the one-china principle and the provisions of the three Sino-us joint communiques, encourages the arrogance of separatist forces of Taiwan independence and undermines China-us relations, and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.