China protests after US envoy to UN meets Taiwanese official in New York
- Kelly Craft and James Lee, who heads Taiwan’s de facto consulate in the city, discussed ways to boost the island’s engagement with the United Nations
- Beijing urged Washington ‘to carefully handle Taiwan-related issues as to not create new challenges for China-US relations’
Craft held a lunch meeting on Wednesday with James Lee Kuang-jang, director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New York and head of Taiwan’s UN Affairs Task Force in the city.
It was the first such meeting between a US envoy to the UN and a top Taiwanese official, and they discussed ways to boost Taiwan’s engagement within the United Nations.
“Obviously, we really are pushing for them to be back into the UN, or have a role in the UN health assembly,” Craft told Associated Press. “If the US doesn’t stand up to China, then who’s going to when it comes to Taiwan, and not only Taiwan, but Hong Kong and others?”
High-level US State Department official arrives in Taiwan
But their warming ties have irked Beijing, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.
