TAIPEI: The coronavirus might have been stamped out more quickly had it emerged in democratic Taiwan instead of autocratic China, the US health secretary said Tuesday during a historic diplomatic trip to Taipei. Alex Azar's renewed criticism of China's handling of the pandemic is likely to further stoke already fiery tensions between the United States and China, where the disease first appeared late last year.

The two powers are clashing over a wide range of trade, military and security issues, as well as the pandemic. "The Chinese Communist Party had the chance to warn the world and work with the world on battling the virus. But they chose not to, and the costs of that choice mount higher every day," Azar said in a speech at a public health college.

"I believe it is no exaggeration to say that, if this virus had emerged in a place like Taiwan or the United States, it might have been snuffled out easily," he added. "Instead, Beijing appears to have resisted information-sharing, muzzling doctors who spoke out and hobbling the world's ability to respond."

Azar's three-day trip is billed as the highest-level visit from the United States since it switched diplomatic recognition from the island to China in 1979. Earlier Tuesday, he held a rare meeting with Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, who said Taiwan lives under the constant threat of having its freedoms taken away by China.

"Our life has become increasingly difficult as China continues to pressure Taiwan into accepting its political conditions, conditions that will turn Taiwan into the next Hong Kong," Wu said. A crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong has gathered pace since China imposed a sweeping security law on the financial hub in June, with opposition politicians disqualified and activists arrested.

That has caused alarm in Taiwan - a self-ruled island of 23 million people that Beijing claims as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize, by force if necessary.