Can Taiwan pull off its China gamble?

When Alex Azar, the US health secretary, arrived in Taipei on Sunday, he became the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since the United States began diplomatic recognition of Beijing in 1979. In both Washington and Taipei, the significance of the visit has been rightly emphasised. Still, the visit has not been met with unequivocal praise in Taiwan. After all, while visits of this nature are undoubtedly important, they risk generating instability in cross-Strait relations. Could a closer relationship with the US spell trouble for Taiwan?

In one editorial published in Taiwan’s United Daily News on Monday morning, the trip was described as ‘a new wave of attack in the fight between the United States and China for leading global status’. The title of another editorial said the trip will ‘push Taiwan to the US’s front line in resistance to China’. This ‘front line’ risks jeopardising the relative stability Taiwan has enjoyed during the global pandemic began.