US envoy joins Taiwan President Ing-wen at military memorial service

Despite that lack of official ties, the United States is Taiwan's most important ally and weapons supplier.

The US envoy to Taiwan joined President Tsai Ing-wen at a military memorial service Sunday in a fresh show of warming relations that threatened to add to irritants in Washington's relations with Beijing.

Neither the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, William Brent Christensen, nor Tsai spoke at the annual event for soldiers killed by Chinese bombing in 1958 on Kinmen, a Taiwanese-controlled island near the mainland coast. Attendees, wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus, observed one minute of silence. Military personnel lit incense at soldiers' graves.

Washington has no official relations with Taiwan, which split with