Taipei: A senior US State Department official is due to arrive in Taiwan on Thursday for a three-day visit that has already drawn a warning from China.
US Undersecretary of State Keith Krach is scheduled to meet Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior officials, the island's foreign ministry said on Thursday. Krach, who holds the portfolio for economic growth, energy and the environment, is the highest-level official from the State Department to visit the island in decades.
His visit follows the high-profile visit in August of US Health Secretary Alex Azar, who was the highest-level American Cabinet official to visit since the break in the formal ties between Washington and Taiwan in 1979 when the US switched relations to Beijing.
Read also: Azar visit to Taiwan is fresh thorn in prickly US-China ties
However, Washington has maintained unofficial ties with Taiwan since the official diplomatic break and is the island's most important ally and provider of defence equipment.
Ahead of Krach's arrival, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, had lunch on Wednesday with Taiwan's top official in New York, a meeting she called "historic" and a further step in the Trump administration's campaign to strengthen relations with the self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory.
Krach's visit has already been condemned by China, which opposes official interactions of any sort between other countries and the island.
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the US at a daily briefing to "stop all forms of official exchanges with Taiwan, so as to avoid serious damage to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait".
AP
