US eases curbs on contact with Taiwan
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Saturday said he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, in a move that angered China in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s presidency. China claims democratic and separately ruled Taiwan as its own territory. While the US, like most countries, has no official relations with Taiwan, the US has ramped up backing for the island, with arms sales and laws to help Taiwan deal with pressure from China. Pompeo said that for several decades the US had created complex internal restrictions on interactions with Taiwanese counterparts by American diplomats and other officials. “Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,” he added. China’s state media on Sunday lashed out at Pompeo, accusing him of “seeking to maliciously inflict a long-lasting scar on China-US ties”.
In a move that is sure to anger China, the US has lifted the “self-imposed restrictions” on contacts between American and Taiwanese diplomats and officials.
The move, ending a longstanding policy to “appease” China, is likely to increase tensions between Washington and Beijing as the Trump administration enters its final days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as president on January 20. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. But Taiwan’s leaders assert that it is a sovereign state.
In a statement on Saturday, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said, “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.”
“Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions.”
China’s state media lashed out at the move, accusing Pompeo of “seeking to maliciously inflict a long-lasting scar on China-US ties.” A writer for the official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary on Sunday that Pompeo’s move proves he “is only interested in stoking unwarranted confrontations, and has no interest in world peace.”