A senior U.S. military intelligence official’s secret visit to Taiwan has been exposed, adding fuel to tensions between Washington and Beijing over the status of the island democracy.
“We urge the U.S. to fully grasp the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, reiterating Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over the island. “China will make legitimate and necessary responses in light of the developments.”
That statement came on the heels of a report that the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s top intelligence officer flew into Taiwan from Hawaii on Sunday. The extraordinary leak reveals a military dimension to U.S.-Taiwan contacts, as President Trump’s team has reserved high-profile trips for nonmilitary officials, such as diplomats or public health officials.
“We welcome the visit of the U.S. official,” a Taiwanese foreign ministry confirmed to local media. “But as this itinerary has not been made public, based on mutual trust between Taiwan and the United States, the Foreign Ministry has no further explanation or comment.”
Chinese authorities regard Taiwan as a renegade province governed by separatists, but authorities in Taipei are heir to the government that was overthrown in the Chinese Communist revolution and took refuge on the island. Trump’s team has increased the number of contacts between the U.S. government and Taipei, but such leaks could diminish the U.S. appetite for future visits.
“The goal on both sides has been to keep these military-to-military exchanges discreet, so they can continue on a regularized basis,” American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow Eric Sayers, a former policy adviser at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told Reuters, which first reported on the visit.
