U.S. Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo on Saturday, January 9, revoked all restrictions that had been imposed over the years on U.S. officials in their contacts with Taiwan.
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"
The State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate the interactions of our diplomats, military personnel and other official representatives in their relations with their Taiwanese counterparts
," the secretary of state said in a statement.
“
The United States had taken these measures unilaterally, to satisfy the communist regime in Beijing.
It's over,
”he added.
He did not specify the nature of the restrictions and the announcement appears largely symbolic, with a 2018 law already authorizing "
officials at all levels of government, including cabinet members in national security functions, the military and other government officials to travel to Taiwan and meet with their Taiwanese counterparts
”.
This announcement, which comes less than two weeks before the end of President Donald Trump's mandate, should nonetheless provoke the fury of Beijing, which sees Taiwan as an integral part of China.
Mike Pompeo does not go so far as to want to completely normalize relations with Taiwan, a decision over which he has no authority anyway.
He indicates that relations with the island will continue to pass through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a private organization which acts as the United States' embassy in Taipei.
But the US government "
maintains relations with unofficial partners around the world, and Taiwan is no exception,
" he concludes.
Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to recognize Beijing, but the United States passed a law that same year that said it must help Taiwan defend itself in the event of conflict.
Since then, Washington has remained the island's most powerful ally and its number one arms supplier.