NPR
Date: June 12, 20182:48 PM ET
By: Colin Dwyer

The same day that President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un held their

Politicians and officials — including Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen (center) — pose during the dedication ceremony Tuesday for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. Embassy in Taipei.  Chiang Ying-ying/AP

historic summit in Singapore, several U.S. politicians and officials attended another, far less heralded ceremony just to the north on Tuesday: It was the dedication of a ritzy new complex for the American Institute in Taiwan, or AIT — and China wasn’t happy about it.

That’s because, despite the innocuous name, the organization has long functioned as the de facto U.S. Embassy in Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a renegade Chinese province. Since the U.S. established diplomatic ties with China nearly four decades ago, Washington has acknowledged that claim and cut ties with Taiwan — formally, at least.

Yet the U.S. and Taiwan have maintained a robust informal relationship. And on Tuesday, the representative office that has handled many of those informal affairs got a roughly $256 million upgraded compound in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]