US-China tension: Washington no longer sees Taiwan as a problem in ties with Beijing, says diplomat

The United States no longer sees Taiwan as a problem in its relations with China, but as an opportunity to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific, a senior US diplomat said on Thursday. Like most nations, the US has no formal diplomatic ties with the island, but is its most important international backer, to Beijing's anger, and President Joe Biden's administration has moved to restate that support. In a speech in Taipei, Raymond Greene, deputy head of the de facto embassy the American Institute in Taiwan, said when he first worked in Taiwan almost two decades ago, everything it did…