Article snippet: The president said in her opening address : Her statement follows a year in which Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has escalated violent rhetoric against Taiwan. In January, Xi called Taiwan’s sovereignty a “dead end” and warned, “We make no promise to abandon the use of force, and retain the option of taking all necessary measures.” Technically called the “Republic of China,” Taiwan is a democracy and capitalist society that celebrates freedom as compared with the communist mainland, which under Xi Jinping is an authoritarian regime that represses free speech and religion with the state controlling most commerce. The United States has deep unofficial relations with Taiwan, codified in the Taiwan Relations Act passed in 1979 when then-President Jimmy Carter switched U.S. diplomatic ties to deal with the People’s Republic of China in Beijing over the Republic of China here in Taiwan. Mainland China refuses to have official diplomatic relations with any country that has official diplomatic ties to Taiwan, so the United States operates unofficially here through a non-profit called the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). AIT is opening a brand new compound here on Taiwan that hosted a reception Monday evening attended by a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation, led by former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Hank Johnson (D-GA) among others. Breitbart News is among a group of international media outlets which sent journalists invited for a se... Link to the full article to read more