On the most senior visit by an American official in more than four decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar hailed Taiwan’s democracy and praised President Tsai Ing-wen’s response to the pandemic in comments likely to stoke tensions with China.
"It is a true honor to be here to convey a message of strong support and friendship from President Trump to Taiwan,” Azar said when meeting Tsai in prepared remarks. He called Taiwan’s democracy "an inspiration to the region and the world” and said he wanted to use the visit "to learn about how our shared democratic values have driven success in health.”
In comments to reporters, Azar said that Taiwan was "so scarred” by China’s lack of transparency during the SARS outbreak in 2003 that its people didn’t trust information coming from Beijing or the World Health Organization. He also said that the U.S. has fought for Taiwan to be included as an observer in the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s decision-making body.