Senior Pentagon official visits Taiwan – report

WASHINGTON, D.C.: A top United States defense official has arrived in Taiwan on a rare visit, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported on Friday, a trip that is bound to further fan tensions between Washington and Beijing over the shoot down of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

Michael Chase, US Defense deputy assistant secretary for China, is the most senior Pentagon official to visit the East Asian island since a 2019 trip by Heino Klinck, then-deputy assistant secretary for East Asia, the FT said.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to seize it if necessary, opposes any official exchange with Taipei, and has reacted with anger to a flurry of trips to the self-ruling democratic island by Western politicians in recent years.

Relations between Beijing and Washington have grown increasingly tense over the balloon, which China insisted was for weather research, but the United States said it was for surveillance, shooting it down earlier this month after it traversed the country.

When asked about reports of Chase’s trip, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing “firmly opposes official and military contacts between the US and Taiwan.”

At a regular news briefing on Friday, Wang urged the US “to stop any form of official and military contacts with Taiwan, to stop meddling in the Taiwan question and to stop creating new tensions across the Taiwan Straits.”

The Pentagon did not confirm the visit, but said its “commitment to Taiwan is rock-solid and contributes to the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and within the region.”

“Our support for, and defense relationship with, Taiwan remains aligned against the current threat posed by the People’s Republic of China,” a spokesman said, using the mainland’s formal name.

Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng also declined to confirm the trip.

Tensions rose last August after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, to which Beijing responded by carrying out major military exercises.

Pelosi’s Republican successor Kevin McCarthy has said he will also visit Taiwan, which the US supports through military sales, but does not recognize.