WASHINGTON — US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has not decided whether to visit Taiwan in what would be the highest-level US visit to the island in a decade, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Tseng Jing-ling, minister of Taiwan's Veteran Affairs Commission, said during a parliamentary session on Monday that he had invited Shinseki.
Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, said Shinseki has not made a decision on whether to accept the invitation.
Shinseki would be the first cabinet-level US official to arrive in Taiwan since a visit in 2000 by Rodney Slater, transportation secretary in the Bill Clinton administration.
In Taiwan, the United Daily News said Shinseki could travel to the island as early as spring next year for a symposium on veteran issues, an area that is not considered politically sensitive and therefore more palatable to China.
China claims Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1959, and opposes any official recognition of the island.
Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained a key ally and a leading arms supplier to the island.
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