U.S. and Taiwanese defense officials held talks in Alaska last week, a U.S. official said on Thursday, a move likely to anger China. The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, regularly describes Taiwan as the most important and sensitive topic in its relations with the United States. Jed Royal, the top Indo-Pacific official at the U.S. Department of Defense, met a senior Taiwanese national security official, in Anchorage, the official said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the world was facing a choice between peace or war at a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in an unprecedented show of force.
