Taiwan Army Chief Attends Meeting Annual U.S. Army Event in D.C.

What is no doubt a first, Taiwan Army Chief Gen. Hsu Yen-pu is on a visit to Washington to attend the annual Association of the U.S. Army convention. He is heading up a delegation of eight senior Army officials. This has already caused a furor in China. The Taiwanese military personnel will meet with Pentagon officials during their stay, after which they will travel to Hawaii for a meeting where they will discuss matters pertaining to bilateral cooperation for next year. The delegates are expected to hold talks with Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, and John Christopher Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. The U.S. media are billing this as an “annual visit,” but it seems to be the first time that a high-level Taiwanese military official came in such an official capacity. Last year there was a visit when a U.S. admiral went, for the first time, to Taiwan, which also raised claims by China that it was a blatant violation of the “one China, two systems” policy.