The White House is planning to hold secret talks with a Taiwanese delegation in the coming days, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) would lead the delegation, it reported, citing “five people familiar with the secret talks — known as the ‘special channel.’”
The delegation is expected to meet with US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the newspaper said.
Photo: CNA
The meetings would take place at the Virginia headquarters of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a foundation that serves as the de facto US embassy in the nation, it said.
The newspaper said that Laura Rosenberger is to head the institute’s US branch after she leaves her post as special assistant to the president and senior director for China and Taiwan at the US National Security Council.
At the AIT, Rosenberger would succeed James Moriarty, who has been the branch’s chairman since 2016, the newspaper said.
The White House and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, declined to comment on the report, it said.
In Taipei, Wu said: “I’m not able to comment on that, and I’m not able to confirm that.”
In other developments, top Taiwanese officials yesterday declined to comment on a reported visit to Taipei by US Department of Defense Deputy Assistant Secretary for China Michael Chase.
On Friday, the Financial Times cited a source as saying that the Pentagon’s top China official has arrived in the nation.
A Reuters report also cited two sources familiar with the matter as saying that Chase is in Taiwan.
Asked about the report, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said he was “not certain” about the purported trip, adding that Taiwan is open to receive productive and beneficial advice on its defense preparedness efforts.
Asked about Chase’s visit, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said: “I really don’t know.”
Chase would be the second-most senior US defense official to visit Taiwan since 2019, when Heino Klinck, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia in the administration of former US president Donald Trump, visited the nation.
The US’ Taiwan Travel Act, which Trump signed into law in 2018, authorizes exchanges of Taiwanese and senior US officials, ending an implicit restriction that had been in effect for close to four decades.
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