SCMP Editorial

Editorial | Alex Azar’s trip to Taiwan the latest move in a dangerous game

Visit by most senior US official to island in 41 years has only worsened already strained relations with China and the White House would be wise to change course

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U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar thumbs up as he visits a mask factory with Director of the American Institute in Taiwan. Photo: AP

SCMP Editorial

Published: 9:19pm, 13 Aug 2020Updated: 10:15pm, 13 Aug 2020

United States health secretary Alex Azar’s visit to Taiwan was billed by President Donald Trump’s administration as being about cooperation on the Covid-19 pandemic. That would seem plausible given the island’s praiseworthy record in handling the disease and the US leader’s ineptitude at combating its spread. But with Azar being the most senior American official to make the trip since Washington switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, and Trump struggling in opinion polls for re-election in November, it was bound to be mostly about politics. It is a reckless strategy; Sino-US relations have been intentionally dragged to their worst level and with rhetoric and military provocation ever-rising, the risk of confrontation is worryingly high.

Azar’s political agenda was constantly on show, from his meeting with the island’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, until his final-day visit to the shrine of late president Lee Teng-hui. At each step, he praised Taiwan’s democracy and its relationship with the US, which has been strengthened under the Trump administration despite Washington adhering to a one-China policy. Beijing was bound to react angrily; unspecified countermeasures were promised and a foreign ministry spokesman said Washington’s agreement with Beijing had been seriously violated. Two Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed a demarcation line in the Taiwan Strait just before Azar met Tsai.

The health secretary’s trip was made possible by Trump’s signing in 2018 of the Taiwan Travel Act, which enables high-level visits between the sides. The US is the island’s biggest arms supplier and in May a potential US$180 million deal was approved with more military aid promised. Azar visited a mask factory that had donated protective gear to the US and witnessed the sealing of a memorandum of understanding on health cooperation. Trump and his officials could learn much about fighting the coronavirus from Taiwan, which has recorded fewer than 500 infections and only seven deaths among its 23 million people. But if beating the disease was genuinely on the administration’s agenda, it should set aside differences and also work with mainland scientists, who already have Covid-19 vaccine trials under way.

With less than three months until the US election, there will be no let-up in Trump’s agitating of Beijing. By portraying the Chinese leadership as being the reason for his country’s ills, he can divert attention away from his mishandling of Covid-19. Taiwan holds a special place for hawks in Trump’s administration, who see diluting the one-China policy as a defeat for Beijing, election win or not. It is a dangerous course that Trump has to rein in to avoid the potential risk of disaster.