US health secretary Alex Azar praises Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen in 'breakthrough' meeting

The United States’ top health official praised Taiwan’s democracy and response to the coronavirus pandemic during a visit to Taipei on Monday that signals the island’s growing strategic importance to Washington as relations deteriorate with Beijing. Alex Azar, the US health secretary, is the highest ranking official to visit Taiwan since Washington severed official ties with Taipei in 1979 and switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing. China has threatened unspecified retaliation for the trip to a state that it claims as its own territory. After touching down on Sunday afternoon, and testing negative for the coronavirus, Mr Azar’s first port of call on Monday morning was to meet Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s newly re-elected president, who he praised for her “courage and vision” in leading a democracy that was an “inspiration” to the world. Mr Azar told Ms Tsai that Taiwan’s response to the coronavirus pandemic had been “among the most successful in the world” and thanked her for providing “needed supplies” globally, including to the US and Pacific Island nations. Ms Tsai responded that she looked for “even more breakthroughs and fruits of cooperation” in dealing with the pandemic and other issues to “jointly contribute to the sustained peaceful development of the Indo-Pacific region.” Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million, has kept Covid-19 cases low at just 480 and 7 deaths, through a combination of strict border controls, quarantine and contact tracing. The US has suffered close to 5.2 million cases and more than 165,000 related deaths.