US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced that the US Department of State is voiding long-standing restrictions on how US diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, just a little over a week before US president-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
Pompeo instructed executive branch agencies to consider “all ‘contact guidelines’ regarding relations with Taiwan ... to be null and void.”
“For several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
“The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. No more,” he said.
“Our two democracies share common values of individual freedom, the rule of law, and a respect for human dignity,” Pompeo said. “Today’s statement recognizes that the US-Taiwan relationship need not, and should not, be shackled by self-imposed restrictions of our permanent bureaucracy.”
The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by US President Donald Trump’s administration to reshape the US’ relationship with Taiwan.
“While the implications of the announcement are not yet clear, it seems the intent is to nudge unofficial US-Taiwan relations toward something more akin to official ties,” said Maggie Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall Law School in New Jersey, who has written extensively on Taiwan and China.
US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft is expected to visit Taipei this week, in the first such visit since Taiwan was excluded from the UN in 1971.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier called Craft’s planned visit “a breach of the ‘one China’ principle” and accused Pompeo of “staging a final show of madness” to “sabotage China-US relations.”
Saturday’s announcement by Pompeo is one of a number the administration has launched or strengthened in the final days of its term, including an initiative to punish companies with close ties to the Chinese military.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell yesterday told the Financial Times that the decision was not rushed ahead of Biden’s inauguration, but was the result of a lengthy review of the Taiwan-US relationship.
“We have been trying to rectify the overall US-China relationship and this is one more step in that direction,” Stilwell said, urging the Biden administration to continue the policy direction.
“Best case, the Biden administration sees this as a blank slate, and starts an internal process to develop what the ideal US-Taiwan engagement structure and process looks like, consistent with the unofficial relationship, shared democratic values, and the benefits the bilateral relationship brings,” said Drew Thompson, a former US Department of Defense official responsible for Taiwan policy.
An official in Biden’s transition team on Saturday said that Biden believes US support for Taiwan must remain “strong, principled and bipartisan,” and that he would work to ensure that.
Biden would support “a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan,” the official said.
The president-elect is committed to the Taiwan Relations Act, which serves as a guide for US interaction with Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties, they added.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan and CNA
BREAKING RECORDS: Kuo Hsing-chun’s snatch, clean and jerk, and combined lifts were all Olympic records, although well off her combined world record Taiwanese weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) yesterday completed her elusive quest for Olympic gold, clinching Taiwan’s first win at the Tokyo Games as she set Olympic records in the women’s under-59kg weight class. Kuo, who has not lost a major competition in her weight class since the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she was hampered by injury and finished third, finally chased down the gold medal that had long remained just out of her grasp. The 27-year-old finished with a combined lift of 236kg — 103kg in the snatch and 133kg in the clean and jerk — 21kg more
A TAIWAN FIRST: The duo are the first badminton players from Taiwan to climb an Olympic podium, and Tai Tzu-ying has a shot at doing the same today Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) yesterday won the nation’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport when they prevailed over a third-seeded Chinese pair in the final of the men’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics. Lee and Wang, both first-time Olympians, defeated Liu Yuchen (劉雨辰) and Li Junhui (李俊慧) 21-18, 21-12 in a 34-minute final at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza. As of yesterday, Taiwan had bagged seven medals in Tokyo — two golds, two silvers and three bronzes — topping its previous best of five medals in 2000 and 2004. Taiwan moved to No. 17 in the
NO ‘ONE CHINA’ LIE: The appropriations act passed the US House of Representatives with a vote of 217-212, but still needs Senate approval and the president’s signature The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a foreign assistance spending bill with an amendment forbidding that funds be used to create, procure or display maps depicting Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China. The amendment was introduced by five Republican representatives — Tom Tiffany, Steve Chabot, Scott Perry, Kat Cammack and Mike Gallagher — and passed unanimously in a bundle with a dozen other amendments. “This is a common sense measure,” Tiffany said, speaking on the House floor on Wednesday. “As we all know, Taiwan has never been part of communist China. The Taiwanese people elect their
THE HOME TEAM: DPP Legislator Kao Chia-yu said she canceled her booking for an AstraZeneca shot as soon as she heard that the Medigen vaccine was an option President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that she would get inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗). Tsai wrote on Facebook that she had registered for her first vaccine dose using the national online COVID-19 vaccination booking system, which allows people to indicate their preferred vaccine brand and to make an appointment when the shot becomes available. Tsai said that she opted for the Medigen vaccine — one of three now available on the system, along with the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines — even though Medigen has yet to deliver any doses or provide a
RSS