taipei taiwan sent covid19 assistance to foreign countries surreptitiously to avoid protests from china its foreign minister said on tuesday during a meeting with the highestlevel american official to visit the island in four decadeschina claims taiwan as its own territory and has sought to isolate it diplomatically including barring its participation in forums such as the world health assemblythe trip by us health and human services secretary alex azar comes against the backdrop of a sharp downturn in relations between china and the us azar said in his remarks that the us supported taiwans participation in international health forumschinas attempts to isolate taiwan has compelled the island at times to keep its donations of masks and personal protective equipment under the radar foreign minister joseph wu saidtruth is we even had to deliver these supplies quietly in some occasions to keep the recipients free from trouble trouble from beijing wu saidtaiwan has brought its virus outbreak under control and wu said the island has donated 51 million masks overseas including 10 million to the us along with other items of personal protective equipment he did not name the other countries to which taiwan has made quiet donations or give other detailsjust 15 countries maintain formal diplomatic ties with taiwan and china has sought to peel away its remaining allieswu said chinese pressure to accept political conditions for bringing taiwan under beijings control has made life increasingly difficulthowever acquiescence would merely turn taiwan into another hong kong wu said referring to recent arrests of media figures and prodemocracy activists under a new national security law being enforced in the semiautonomous chinese territorywe know this is not just about taiwans status but about sustaining democracy in the face of authoritarian aggression wu saidazar described political bullying over taiwans exclusion from the world health organisation in 2018 that blocked a milliondollar taiwanese contribution that would have helped combat an ebola outbreak in congoespecially during a pandemic but at all times international organisations should not be places to play politics azar saidwhile the us maintains only unofficial ties with taiwan in deference to beijing it remains the islands most important ally and provider of armsa 2018 us law urged washington to send increasingly highlevel officials to taiwan in contrast to past years when such visits were extremely rare thus azar is the highestlevel american official to visit taiwan since their break in formal diplomatic ties in 1979relations between china and the us have deteriorated over issues ranging from the south china sea to tiktok hong kong and trade in a throwback to the cold war the two recently ordered titfortat closures of consulates in houston and chengdu and rhetorical sniping has become a daily occurrence