With effectively dueling military exercises underway including in the East China Sea, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar landed in Taiwan Sunday to Chinese denunciations of interference in internal affairs. The officially cited reason for Azar’s visit is an “inspection tour” and discussions to learn about Taiwan’s success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic (just 480 cases, 7 deaths to date). He is supposed to sign a “Health Cooperation memorandum of understanding” on Monday and visit Taiwan’s CDC.
However, not only is Azar the highest-ranking U.S. official to go to Taiwan since 1979, he is also scheduled to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen , which is highly unusual and not likely limited to a discussion of the pandemic.
