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Taiwan’s top national security official is in the Washington area for secret talks with the Trump administration as China increases military pressure on its island neighbour.
Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s national security adviser and former foreign minister, is leading a delegation for a meeting known as the “special channel”. The talks were set for Friday and mark Donald Trump’s first use of the forum since he returned as US president in January.
The channel has been in use between the US and Taiwan for years but was first revealed by the Financial Times in 2021. It offers a setting for officials from Washington and Taipei to discuss security issues although the two sides do not openly discuss it,
The US has kept the channel under wraps to avoid triggering any provocation by Beijing towards Taiwan. Washington severed official relations with Taipei after normalising relations with Beijing in 1979 but maintains unofficial relations with the country. China frequently criticises US ties with Taiwan.
Washington recognises Beijing as the sole government of China under its long-standing “one China” policy, which acknowledges — without accepting — Beijing’s view that it has sovereignty over Taiwan.
Wu and his team arrived in the Washington area this week as China’s military and coastguard started large-scale exercises around Taiwan. The People’s Liberation Army has conducted increasingly sophisticated exercises around the island in recent years, heightening US concerns about its stance on Taiwan.
In February, Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of US Indo-Pacific command, said the exercises had become so extensive that the PLA could use them as a “fig leaf” to conceal a military invasion of Taiwan.
“Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan right now are not exercises as they call them, they are rehearsals. They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan,” he told the Honolulu Defense Forum.
Wu and Lin Chia-lung, Taiwan’s foreign minister, last visited Washington in August 2024 for what were the first “special channel” discussions following the election of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te in January.
One person familiar with the situation said Lin was part of the Taiwanese delegation in Washington this week.
Under a practice that has spanned multiple administrations, the Taiwanese foreign minister and defence minister cannot enter the District of Columbia because the US and Taiwan do not have official relations. Previously, officials have met in neighbouring Virginia or Maryland.
Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Washington — the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office — declined to comment on the special channel talks. The White House did not comment.
The channel typically includes US officials from across the administration, including the National Security Council.
The meeting this week comes amid upheaval at the NSC after Trump fired several officials who served under Mike Waltz, the US’s national security adviser. Waltz has faced huge pressure since it emerged that he added a journalist to a message group on Signal about an imminent US military attack.
People familiar with the situation said figures in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement were seeking to purge NSC officials they considered “neoconservatives”, or more willing to use American military power abroad.
The Maga camp has received support from Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist and social media influencer, who urged Trump in a meeting this week to fire NSC staffers. She has also targeted Alex Wong, deputy national security adviser, and Ivan Kanapathy, the NSC official for Asia who would have been expected to attend the secret channel meetings.
Several people familiar with the pressure campaign said Kanapathy was one of many officials facing mounting pressure.
The White House declined to comment on Kanapathy. One US official said that Kanapathy was still working at the NSC on Friday.
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