US to ‘liberalize’ contacts with Taiwan, defying Beijing

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The State Department said Friday it will make it easier for U.S. officials to meet Taiwanese representatives, defying pressure from China at a time of high tensions.

The United States still considers Beijing as China’s legitimate government, consistent with its switch of recognition in 1979, but will do away with some of the convoluted rules that restricted dealings with Taiwan including in-person meetings.

The updated guidance “underscores Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and an important security and economic partner that is also a force for good in the international community,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

“These new guidelines liberalize guidance on contacts with Taiwan, consistent with our unofficial relations,” he said in a statement.

The move by President Joe Biden’s administration formalizes increasingly vocal U.S. support for Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, and comes in response to an act of Congress that required a review.

Taiwan’s mission in Washington — officially called the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States,” rather than an embassy — welcomed the new guidelines, saying they reflected a bipartisan consensus for closer relations.

“Taiwan and the U.S. share a deep and abiding partnership based on our common values and joint interests,” it said, pointing to cooperation on global health, space, trade and democracy promotion.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch critic of Beijing, in his last days in office said he was getting rid of previous guidelines on dealing with Taiwan but not issue new ones, drawing confusion in some quarters on what had changed.

Under the guidelines issued by the Biden administration, U.S. officials will be allowed to invite Taiwanese representatives into government buildings in Washington or attend working-level meetings at the Taiwanese mission, both of which were earlier prohibited, a State Department official said.

The United States has already begun allowing open interactions with Taiwanese diplomats since Pompeo ended earlier guidance.

The Biden administration last month sent the U.S. ambassador to Palau on a visit to Taiwan to accompany the president of the island nation — one of a dwindling number of countries that recognize Taipei.

Similarly, the acting U.S. ambassador in Japan in March tweeted a picture of himself meeting at his official residence with his Taiwanese counterpart — the type of dayto-day diplomacy that is usually a non-event but which Washington had previously shied away from with Taiwan for fear of upsetting Beijing.