The fact is that the economic slowdown, domestic turmoil, and lurch to the Left within the People’s Republic of China – with some experts speculating that President Xi Jinping’s leadership is under pressure from a section of the Communist Party – needs to be taken more seriously than it has hitherto been.
Taiwan saw Azar’s trip as a diplomatic coup and an opportunity to showcase its widely praised response to the virus. Beijing however saw it as another provocation from the US. When the US increases interactions with Taiwan and sells arms committed under the Taiwan Relations Act, Beijing sees it as a challenge to its sovereignty and defiance of its threat to take over the island by force
The scandal soon enveloped China Airlines, which often puts on charter flights for presidential trips and is majority-owned by the government.
In the last decade, Taiwan has been one of the most progressive societies in Asia when it comes to gay rights, staging the continent's biggest annual gay pride parade
