[NTD] KINMEN, Taiwan—Amid rising tensions with Beijing, the de facto U.S. ambassador in Taiwan took part on Sunday for the first time in commemorations of a key military clash and the last time Taiwanese forces joined battle with the Chinese Communist Party on a large scale.
The Chinese regime has stepped up military activity around the democratic island, moves denounced by Taiwan’s government as an attempt at intimidation to force them to accept Chinese communist rule.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen laid a wreath and bowed her head in respect at a memorial park on Kinmen island, which sits a few kilometres (miles) off the Chinese metropolis of Xiamen, to mark the 62nd anniversary of the start of the second Taiwan Straits crisis.
In August 1958, Chinese communist forces began more than a month of bombarding Kinmen, along with the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago further up the coast, including naval and air battles, seeking to force them into submission.
Brent Christensen, head of the American Institute in Taiwan and Washington’s de facto representative, offered his respects too, standing behind Tsai, in a symbolic show of U.S. support for the island.
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