英文

Editorial:US health chief's Taiwan trip

【明報專訊】TAIWAN and the US announced yesterday (August 5) that US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will visit Taiwan in the coming days. He will be the first US health chief to visit Taiwan and the first US cabinet official to visit the island in six years. What is more, Azar's will be the highest-level visit made by a US cabinet official to Taiwan since 1979, when Washington severed its official ties with Taipei. The move marks the most significant development in Taiwan-US relations after Taiwan's recent announcement of the reopening of its representative office in Guam. It will certainly bring new impacts on Sino-US relations and cross-strait relations, which are already at an all-time low. Given that the Beijing authorities' bigger picture is the maintenance of Sino-US relations, they may not make an aggressive response in the short term. However, the gradual escalation of Washington's playing of the ''Taiwan card'' is not likely to simply stop here. Once the critical red lines are reached, both sides of the Taiwan Strait will be faced with very few options.

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