US, Taiwan Need More High-Level Contacts After Health Secretary Azar's Visit - Senator

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th August, 2020) Regular visits by senior US and Taiwanese officials, with the current trip by US Health Secretary Alex Azar serving as an example, should become routine to push back against Chinese efforts to isolate the island nation, Senator Marco Rubio said in a press release on Monday.

"I applaud Secretary Azar's trip to Taiwan, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two democracies meeting in each other's respective capitals should be the norm," Rubio said in the release.

Rubio's statement followed a meeting in Taipai between Azar and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen hours earlier. Azar is the highest-level US official to visit Taiwan since the United States officially severed ties with that nation in 1979.

Azar said the particular focus of the discussion with Tsai and the trip was to highlight Taiwan's success on health, in combating COVID-19, and cooperating with the United States to prevent, detect and respond to health threats.

Taiwan has been widely praised for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, with less than 500 cases reported in the island of 23 million and only seven deaths, according to official reports.

China considers Taiwan a rebel province and opposes all contact between Washington and Taipei. For decades, China has successfully blocked repeated Taiwanese efforts to win observer status at the World Health Organization.

Azar's visit comes amid surging tension between the United States and China over human rights abuses of the latter's Muslim minority, arrests of democracy supporters in Hong Kong, claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea and the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Rubio is one of a handful of lawmakers and human rights activists sanctioned by China in apparent retaliation for US imposition of sanctions on Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie