TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The top Pentagon official for China is scheduled to visit Taiwan in a matter of days, according to British media.

As tensions rise over the appearance of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. and other unidentified aerial phenomena, Michael Chase, the U.S. Department of Defense's deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, is slated to arrive in Taiwan "in the coming days," reported Financial Times, citing four sources familiar with the matter. The newspaper said Chase is presently in Mongolia for military talks.

Chase would be the highest-level Pentagon official to visit Taiwan since former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia Heino Klinck was dispatched to Taiwan in 2019. Klinck was the highest-level Pentagon official to visit Taiwan since 1979.

When asked by the media on Friday morning (Feb. 17) to confirm Chase's visit, Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that whenever any delegation visits for the benefit of Taiwan, "it is a very good opportunity." When pressed to provide a timeframe for when Chase would arrive, Chiu appeared to acknowledge that it would indeed occur by saying that he cannot yet provide precise details on the timing of the trip.