Reuters news agency says Rear Admiral Michael Studeman who oversees regional military intelligence arrived on Sunday.
A two-star Navy admiral who oversees US military intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region has made an unannounced visit to Taiwan, two sources told the Reuters news agency on Sunday, in a high-level trip that could upset China.
The sources, who include a Taiwanese official familiar with the situation, said the official was Rear Admiral Michael Studeman. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the Navy’s website, Studeman is director of the J2, which oversees intelligence, at the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command.
The Pentagon declined to comment. Taiwan’s foreign ministry confirmed on Sunday that a US official had arrived in Taiwan but declined to provide details, saying the trip had not been made public.
China, which claims democratically run Taiwan as its territory, reacted with fury when US Health Secretary Alex Azar travelled to Taipei in August, followed by Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth Keith Krach in September, sending fighter jets near the island on each occasion.
The Trump administration has ramped up support for Taiwan, including with new arms sales, alarming China.
It was not immediately clear whether Studeman’s visit would be seen as an escalation by Beijing. Still, he could be one of the most high-ranking US military officers known to have visited Taipei in recent years.
Douglas Paal, a former head of the US representative office in Taiwan who is now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “If it is Indopacom J2 Studeman, I know of no precedent for such a visit.”
But Randall Schriver, a former assistant secretary of defence for Asia during the Trump administration, said Trump’s Pentagon had been quietly sending one-star flag officers to Taiwan on a routine basis.
He noted that the United States and Taiwan had close intelligence exchanges on the threat from China’s military.
Bonnie Glaser, a regional security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said it would not be unprecedented for a US flag officer to visit Taipei.
Unmarked aircraft
Taiwan’s United Daily News portal published pictures of an unmarked private jet, which it identified as being a US military aircraft, arriving at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport and what appeared to be officials waiting at its VIP terminal.
Data on the flight-tracking website planefinder.net showed a private flight arriving from Hawaii – home to the headquarters of the Indo-Pacific Command – into Songshan airport late on Sunday afternoon, shortly before the United Daily News published the pictures on its website.
In a brief statement, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said there were frequent interactions with the United States and that “we welcome the visit of the U.S. official.”
“But as this itinerary has not been made public, based on mutual trust between Taiwan and the United States, the Foreign Ministry has no further explanation or comment,” it added.
#USNavy rear admiral makes unannounced visit to Taiwan https://t.co/177AlpahJw 20 years ago, LtCdr Studeman analyzed previous #Taiwan crises, including how the lack of an overt US commitment prompted Mao to have the PLA seize Tachen islands in 1955: https://t.co/u9Gz1cJetQ
— Patrick M. Cronin (@PMCroninHudson) November 22, 2020
However, it said in a separate statement that Taiwan media reports that a delegation led by CIA chief Gina Haspel had arrived in Taiwan were untrue and that Haspel had no plans to visit.
The de facto US embassy in Taipei declined to comment.
The US, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is the democratic island’s most important international backer and supplier of arms.
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said last week the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, is expected to visit Taiwan. US media have said the trip is likely to take place early next month.
