A senior American diplomat says Australia and the United States are discussing contingency plans in case a military conflict erupts over Taiwan.

Key points:
Michael Godman says the US is focused on the risk of Taiwan facing overt military intervention from China
China considers the democratic nation a renegade territory of its own
Australia does not formally recognise Taiwan diplomatically
The US embassy’s most senior diplomat currently posted to Australia, Michael Goldman, has also praised Australia for standing up to China’s “economic coercion” during the past year.

“We have enormous respect for what Australia’s done over the past year, in calling for a COVID investigation, in standing up to economic coercion, and I should say in the course of that proving that your economy is much more resilient in terms of your markets than you may have anticipated,” he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-01/australia-discuss-contingency-plans-us-possible-conflict-taiwan/100043826