US Pentagon’s top China official Michael Chase has arrived in Taiwan, FT reports

Pentagon Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense's visit to Taiwan could exacerbate tensions between Beijing & Washington. He is the senior most US defence official to visit Taiwan since 2019.

File photo of Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng speaking at a rank conferral ceremony for military officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force, at the defence ministry in Taipei, Taiwan 28 December 2021 | Reuters/Annabelle Chih

Taipei: The Pentagon’s top China official, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Chase, has arrived in Taiwan for a visit, the Financial Times reported on Friday citing a source, on a trip that could exacerbate tension between Beijing and Washington.

Taiwan’s defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did the Pentagon.

Speaking earlier on Friday, Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said he was “not very certain” about a report that the trip would take place.

Chiu, asked whether Chase would be coming, said “those who are friendly to us” are very welcome.

“But so far it is not very certain,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a parliament session.

“I won’t explain the details,” he said. “I won’t explain until I get formal notification.”

Chase would be the most senior U.S. defence official to visit the island since 2019.

China and the United States are involved in a bitter dispute over the U.S. military’s shooting down of what it called a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina this month. China says the balloon was for monitoring weather.

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly demanded that foreign officials not visit the democratically governed island.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated that the government was firmly opposed to official interactions and military ties between the United States and Taiwan.

China staged war games near Taiwan last August to express its anger at a Taipei visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Although the United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it is the island’s most important arms supplier and the two have a close security relationship, with U.S. defence officials on occasion visiting.

In 2020, a two-star Navy admiral overseeing U.S. military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region made an unannounced visit to Taiwan.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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