RUTHFULLY YOURS

Undersecretary of State Keith Krach, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the island since Washington cut formal ties with Taipei four decades ago, expressed U.S. support for deeper cooperation at a dinner Friday evening hosted by President Tsai Ing-wen, her office said.

The Trump administration has pushed to further relationships with Taiwan as tensions grow with Beijing over technology, trade and global influence. The status of the island, which Beijing considers part of Chinese territory, is one of the most sensitive issues between the U.S. and China. Beijing sees high-level U.S. interactions with Taiwanese officials as provocations.

The State Department said earlier this week Mr. Krach’s trip was to attend a memorial service honoring former President Lee Teng-hui, who died in July. Mr. Lee’s legacy of helping Taiwan transition to a multiparty democracy gave the U.S. and Taiwan an opportunity to highlight shared political values around democracy, a point emphasized in statements from both sides.

Hours before the meeting, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it scrambled jet fighters after at least 18 Chinese aircraft crossed the so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait that roughly marks the halfway point between the island and mainland China.

China said its military exercises near the Taiwan Strait on Friday were necessary to safeguard its national sovereignty, citing recent interactions between Taiwan and the U.S.

“Whether it’s attempting to control China through Taiwan or trying to tap foreign forces to boost oneself, it’s all wishful thinking,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Col. Ren Guoqiang said at a news briefing in Beijing. “Those who play with fire will burn themselves.”

The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported this week that the Trump administration is poised to sell billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan to ratchet up political and military pressure against China. The U.S. has already sold about $15 billion in arms to Taiwan, surpassing roughly $14 billion over the course of the Obama administration.

Also this week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft and Taiwan’s top official in New York met for an outdoor lunch on Manhattan’s East Side. Ms. Craft told the Associated Press that James K.J. Lee, the director of Taiwan’s economic and cultural office in New York, had proposed a meeting, having recently arrived in New York after serving as secretary-general in Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Krach is the second high-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan in two months. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar traveled to the island in August, becoming the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan since the U.S. established formal diplomatic ties with China in 1979.

Before his meeting with Ms. Tsai on Friday, Mr. Krach met senior Taiwanese officials, including the premier as well as the economic and foreign ministers, to discuss economic issues and bilateral cooperation, according to government statements.

Taiwan is looking to sign a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and cleared a major obstacle last month by easing restrictions on U.S. beef and pork imports.

Mr. Krach is set to attend a memorial service Saturday for Mr. Lee, hailed by admirers as the “father of democracy” in Taiwan for dismantling the authoritarian regime established by Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist government, which gained control of the island in 1945 following the end of World War II.

China’s Communist Party has sought to take over Taiwan since Mao Zedong seized power on the mainland in 1949, and Beijing has refused to rule out the use of military force.

On Wednesday, the day before Mr. Krach arrived in Taipei, the People’s Liberation Army sent two anti-submarine military aircraft into the island’s southwest air-defense identification zone, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, which said it had sent signals for Beijing to back off. In response to the Chinese sorties on Friday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry also issued radio warnings and deployed an air-defense missile system for monitoring. It urged restraint by China, which it said was alienating the people of Taiwan with acts of military intimidation.

The latest Chinese drills added to a series of PLA activities near Taiwan, some of which Beijing has openly described as designed to signal its determination to assert its claims over the island.

Last week, Taiwan’s defense and foreign ministries criticized Beijing for conducting large-scale aerial and maritime joint exercises southwest of Taiwan for two straight days, characterizing the drills as provocative gestures. Since then, the Defense Ministry has started releasing detailed statements on Chinese warplane activities near Taiwan, including breakdowns of specific aircraft types and maps showing their flight paths.

Beijing has protested Mr. Krach’s visit. In a regular news briefing Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin warned the U.S. and Taiwan to stop official exchanges.