In sign of shift, top U.S. envoy to Japan visits Taiwan counterpart for first time in decades
In a sign of the shifting U.S. position on Taiwan, Tokyo-based envoys from the two states have broken bread at Taipei’s de facto embassy in the Japanese capital — the first time ambassador-level diplomats have met there since 1979.
The move is in line with what some observers have heralded as a new standard for U.S. officials’ interactions with self-ruled Taiwan amid the United States’ growing rivalry with China.
Frank Hseih, who heads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday that he had invited U.S. Embassy Charge d’affaires Joseph Young to dine with him at his official residence a day earlier to discuss “regional peace and prosperity” and other issues. The pair were joined by Japanese lawmakers, who Hseih described as “friends.”
“We exchanged views on issues related to regional peace and prosperity,” Hsieh wrote. “This was a first, a new beginning that carried important implications for cooperation between Taiwan, the United States and Japan.”
