US lifts restrictions on official contacts with Taiwan govt
WASHINGTON: 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, secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced.
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, 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,”
The US has maintained close ties with Taiwan since it split from mainland China in 1949 after the end of a civil war. But until recently, Washington has avoided major displays of friendship so as to not antagonise Beijing, which continues to view the self-governing democracy of around 24 million people as an inseparable part of its territory.
Referring to Taiwan as a “reliable” and “unofficial” partner, Pompeo, a staunch critic of China, added that the US executive branch agencies should consider “contact guidelines” regarding relations with Taiwan previously issued by the state department to be “null and void.” “The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. No more,” he said.
The US government maintains relationships with unofficial partners around the world, and Taiwan is no exception, he said.
HK arrests slammed
The foreign ministers of Australia, the US, UK and Canada issued a joint statement on Sunday expressing “serious concern” about the arrest of 55 democracy activists and supporters in Hong Kong last week.
The arrests were by far the largest such action taken under a national security law that China imposed on the semi-autonomous territory a little more than six months ago.
“It is clear that the National Security Law is being used to eliminate dissent and opposing political views,” they said.
“We are appalled by remarks made by some overseas government officials that seemed to suggest that people with certain political beliefs should be immune to legal sanctions,” the Hong Kong government said in response to the statement.