Informed sources revealed that the commander of the Taiwanese navy, Tang Hua, will visit the United States next week to attend a military ceremony and discuss ways to strengthen bilateral naval cooperation, while China is issuing threats towards the island.

Security sources mentioned that Tang will visit Hawaii, the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command, to attend a change of command ceremony for the fleet in the Pacific Ocean, according to the "Taipei Times" newspaper today, Saturday.

The sources added that Tang is expected to attend the "Sea-Air-Space" conference from April 8 to 10 near Washington, and talks are underway to arrange a meeting with the US Navy operations chief, Admiral Lisa Franchetti.

The sources mentioned that Tang's visit is part of US efforts called the "Joint Island Defense Theory" to coordinate with Taiwan, Japan, and other countries to confront Chinese armed forces within the so-called "First Island Chain," which is a chain surrounding Chinese waters linking Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo, an island divided between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Both the Taiwanese navy and the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) refrained from commenting on the visit news, and the Chinese Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.