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Washington removes restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan

2021-01-10T18:22:57.652Z


Pompeo's announcement, a few days after the change of Administration, adds to the visit planned by the US ambassador to the UN, for which Beijing has already protested


"No more," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday night, after announcing that the United States was eliminating the restrictions in force for decades between its officials and those of Taiwan.

As explained by the head of US diplomacy, Washington has been creating "complex internal restrictions" for too many years to regulate contacts by diplomats, members of the Armed Forces and others with Taipei "in an attempt to appease Beijing", something that it's not going to keep happening.

The statement comes 10 days after a new Administration with Joe Biden takes office, and it will enrage Beijing, from which a response was expected.

China conceives Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory, although the island functions as a de facto independent state and its Government is considered, at least on paper, as the legitimate Chinese Government since the nationalist troops took refuge in its territory after being defeated in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Beijing considers it an essential condition for relations with other countries that foreign governments accept the idea of ​​"One China", described as a "principle" by the Chinese government and as a "policy" by the US. For the government in Zhongnanhai, the idea It implies accepting that his is the only valid executive on both sides of the Strait of Formosa, and therefore renouncing to maintain official diplomatic relations with Taipei.

For Washington, which considers it a "policy", it is equivalent to considering the situation "indeterminate": since it established full diplomatic relations with the Chinese communist government in 1979, it does not recognize the sovereignty of Beijing over Taiwan, nor the independence of the island.

China has always considered unification with Taiwan one of its primary interests, which it does not renounce to enforce by force.

For its part, the United States has had excellent informal relations with Taipei since 1979;

and its legislation obliges it to assist the island to prevent an invasion by the Government in Beijing.

Washington is Taipei's main military ally and sells weapons to it regularly, prompting immediate protests from the Chinese government.

After decades of relative neutrality, the Donald Trump administration maintained very cordial relations with Taipei, as those with Beijing became strained.

In his twilight, he seems determined to shake them up and force the hand of Joe Biden's successor government.

On Thursday he announced that the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, will visit the island, just months after the US Secretary of Health, the highest-ranking official to visit Taiwan in four decades, a move that the Ministry Chinese Foreign Ministry described it as "crazy."

The Ambassador of Taiwan to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, has applauded this decision.

“It is the end of decades of discrimination.

It is a great day for our bilateral relationship ”, he said through Twitter.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has also welcomed the lifting of restrictions that "uselessly limited" bilateral relations.

"The close partnership between Taiwan and the United States rests firmly on our common values ​​and interests and the unshakable faith in freedom and democracy," he added.

At the moment, the meaning of the measure in practice is not clear, although Pompeo has said that all communications from the Executive with the island will be made through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT, for its acronym in English), owned by Washington. and that it functions as a de facto Embassy.

Pompeo's statement also came two days after the Chinese government warned the United States about a "high price" to pay if it continues with plans to send its ambassador to the United Nations to the island next week.

A three-day visit that is planned for a week before Joe Biden's inauguration as president of the United States.

A statement issued in Washington indicates that Craft's visit "will reinforce the strong and continued support of the United States Government to the international space of Taiwan."

"The United States will pay a high price for this decision, which is wrong," China responded last week.

"We urge Washington to stop this crazy provocation, to stop creating new difficulties for China-US relations, and to stop its march down the wrong path."

As relations between Beijing and Washington have turned increasingly sour, the Chinese army has increased its pressure on the island and the Taiwanese army, through maneuvers in waters near that territory and with overflights of its planes in what Taipei consider your airspace.

On Sunday, in a comment, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua compared the secretary of state to a gambler who even at the last minute tried to turn his fortune around and continued to gamble on his remaining assets.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-01-10

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