ambassador has attended the ceremony in a move likely to raise tensions with china brant christensen who heads the american institute in taiwan the us is defacto embassy on the island intended a service commemorating what is called the 2nd taiwan straits crisis it refers to the chinese bomb big of kinsmen island in 1958 that led to the deaths of taiwanese troops who control the island its proximity to the chinese mainland has always been a source of tension with taiwan. christensen's appearance with the taiwanese veda comes at a time of growing tensions between the u.s. and china over the united states has continued military support for taiwan which beijing regards as a part of its threat of tree from what we can go across to taipei where did i'm a correspondent we have yang is standing by remember good to have you on the program how significant is brant christensen's attendance at this memorial service . so like a lot of the media reports every point christianson it's the 1st director which means that he is the defacto ambassador it's not one that has ever attended such a coming rat