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Despite this lack of official ties, the United States is Taiwan’s main ally and armed supplier. The AIT is a non-profit corporation instead of an embassy, but is staffed by employees of the state department.
There was no direct official Chinese comment Sunday on U.S. participation in the commemoration.
Sunday marked the first performance by an AIT director at the annual commemoration.
Christensen has previously attended events with Tsai, but on Sunday it was unusually high profile. Some Taiwanese TV channels broadcast the memory live.
Christensen, who led an eight-member delegation, and Tsai said nothing against reporters.
Previous Taiwanese presidents have spoken at the memorial. Tsai, who took office in 2016, did not make a speech last year, but spoke to reporters about events in Hong Kong.
Washington’s support for Taiwan’s democratically elected government has been a chronic annoyance in relations with Beijing. More recently, both sides are in doubt about Beijing’s technological ambitions, spying allegations, trade, the South China Sea and China’s response to the virus pandemic.
Soldiers commemorate the assassination on Sunday after the mainland army liberation army began artillery attacks on Kinmen, near the Chinese coast, on August 23, 1958.
Their intensity waned the following October, but they did not end until Washington and Beijing formed official relations in 1979.
