It's in US' long-term strategic interests to keep status quo on Taiwan

ALEX Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, recently met Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei. It was the highest-level visit by an American official to the island since 1979, when the United States established diplomatic ties with China and broke off relations with the government in Taipei.

Since then, both Republican and Democratic administrations have maintained their commitment to the so-called "One China" policy, which acknowledges China's position that there is only one Chinese government, and maintains formal ties with China rather than with the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province to be reunified with the mainland one day.

At the same time, the United States has also pledged to pursue a "robust unofficial" relationship with Taipei, including through continued arms sales to the island so that it can defend itself - but without taking steps to recognise it as an independent country. While facing critical tests through the years, this somewhat ambiguous US approach towards Taiwan has helped uphold a status quo across the Taiwan Strait and stabilise the relationship between Washington and Beijing, which has continued to expand since 1979.