Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces on Jan. 9 the lifting of self-imposed restrictions on U.S. contacts with Taiwan. A photo of Pompeo.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after announcing on January 7 that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft would soon visit Taiwan, issued another heavyweight statement on January 9 announcing the lifting of restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan engagement. Some scholars say this is a belated historical correction that officially helps Taiwan rejoin the international community, creating an opportunity for Taiwan to further expand its international space and retrieve its innocent lost status as a normal country.
Pompeo’s statement on the State Department’s website said Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and a reliable partner of the United States, but for decades the State Department has developed complex internal restrictions to regulate the interactions of our diplomats, military personnel and other officials with their Taiwanese counterparts. “The U.S. government has taken these actions unilaterally to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. That will not happen again.”
Pompeo said, “Today, I am announcing the removal of all of these self-imposed restrictions. The executive branch should consider all previous ‘contact guidelines’ issued by the State Department under the authority of the Secretary of State for relations with Taiwan to be null and void.”
The Taiwan Representative Office in the United States issued a statement expressing its gratitude on the same day and said that Secretary Pompeo’s announcement of the lifting of restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations fully reflects the strength and depth of the relationship between Taiwan and the U.S. The Government of the Republic of China sincerely welcomes the announcement and looks forward to the continued strengthening and growth of the Taiwan-U.S. partnership in the foreseeable future.
A belated historical correction has historical significance
In response, Gobiton, an independent scholar and commentary columnist in the United States, told the Epoch Times that Pompeo’s lifting of the U.S. government’s self-imposed restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations in the last two weeks of this U.S. administration’s term “is a belated historical correction, a fundamental change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan over the past four decades and years, and is of historical significance.”
According to Gobbledon, Pompeo’s point is that Western liberal democracies should no longer compromise with the Chinese Communist Party out of interest and at the expense of the international status of the liberal democracy of Taiwan, which is a decades-long disgrace to the international community and must be changed, “It is a ridiculous and shameful national behavior of the United States to set self-imposed limits because of the fear of the Chinese Communist Party, so from interest identification to value identity, this is a change the United States must have.”
“By breaking the ice on Taiwan, the U.S. has provided the international community with an exemplary model for returning Taiwan affairs to justice.” Gobbledon said the U.S. move “creates an opportunity for Taiwan to further expand its international space and recover its innocent lost status as a normal country.”
He said Taiwan should see this painstaking effort by Pompeo and “seize the opportunity to actively push forward to reach one or two substantial gains that can still be sustained even if the U.S. has an accident in the short term.”
The lifting of restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan interaction U.S. released three messages
Gobbledon said the U.S. initiative this time shows at least three messages: first, formally helping Taiwan rejoin the international community. “This was originally an important policy for the next Trump administration, but had to be announced earlier because of the unusual circumstances that emerged from the U.S. presidential election. Due to the haste of time it is currently only possible to lift internal restrictions and not to move forward in a more substantial way.”
Second, the timing of the announcement, when Congress certified Biden’s election, was chosen to create a fait accompli. “The Biden administration, even if it stole the election to power, even if it wants to be pro-communist and sell out Taiwan, is not too reckless, if these two weeks if you can arrange a more substantial relationship, knocking the real thing is not easy to change. As long as the new administration does not have new hard and fast rules, it will become a state practice to be implemented.”
Third, what is happening in the U.S. today is the result of the evil infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party, and the kind of policy that the U.S. and the international community have demonstrated over the past few decades on Taiwan, which is motivated entirely by interest and a departure from liberal democratic values, is fundamentally due to its association with the Chinese Communist Party, “What Pompeo is doing this time, rather than changing the progress of U.S. relations with Taiwan, lies more in having a symbolic meaning of the return of justice.”
Gobbledon also said that this historic ice-breaking U.S.-Taiwan interaction by Pompeo actually hit the Chinese Communist Party the hardest.
In this regard, Lee You-tan, professor and director of the Institute of National Development at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, echoed the sentiment, “The Chinese Communist Party will definitely jump on this and will definitely put pressure on Taiwan.” He said there has always been conflict between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, “totalitarian dictatorship and liberal democracy are inherently in conflict, and the Chinese Communist Party has always wanted to annex Taiwan, the United States does so, the Chinese Communist Party will certainly put more pressure on Taiwan.”
Li Youtan said that Taiwan is originally a sovereign and independent country, Taiwan must have sovereignty in order to maintain human rights, the Chinese Communist Party is not pragmatic and does not dare to face Taiwan is a normal country, the whole problem lies in the wrong attitude of the Chinese Communist Party towards Taiwan, so, “the Chinese Communist Party should respect the current state of division across the Taiwan Strait if they want to unify, all things will be solved, cross-strait relations may be eased .”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Craft Visits Taiwan on Jan. 13
Earlier, Pompeo announced on Jan. 7 that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kraft would visit Taiwan. Craft has confirmed that he will visit Taiwan on Jan. 13 and will meet with Republic of China President Tsai Ing-wen. In response, Tsai expressed her sincere welcome on Twitter on January 9, stressing that this represents an “important milestone” in U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Li Youtan said that the two steps taken by the United States now are in essence the recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign and independent country, “the United States representative to the United Nations to visit Taiwan to highlight the significance of the symbol is to let the international know that Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations is an abnormal and unhealthy fact; ambassador to the United Nations to visit Taiwan, this is a very strong, very special symbol. On behalf of the United States, it also sees that Taiwan was supposed to be a member of the United Nations, and this is the status that should rightfully be given to Taiwan.”
“Now the removal of diplomatic restrictions on Taiwan is also to highlight that in addition to not yet established diplomatic relations, it (the United States) recognizes the Republic of China is a normal country, it (the United States) all everything as Taiwan is a country to treat.”
Li Youtan stressed that the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Taiwan and Taiwan’s membership in the United Nations are normal states, and this normal state does not prevent the possibility of seeking reunification across the Taiwan Strait in the future, “but we are opposed to being unified by the totalitarian dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, never accept the reunification of one country, two systems under the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, never accept the reunification of the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, without freedom and democracy, that is annexation, and harm our free human rights That is annexation and hurts our free human rights.”
“One country, two systems in Hong Kong shows that freedom and human rights in Hong Kong cannot be ensured under a totalitarian dictatorship, and the price for Hong Kong to fight for democracy is instead the suppression of the state security law that gives them unlimited supremacy, which Taiwan sees very clearly. Therefore, we must defend our sovereignty and fight for the legitimate status we deserve, and oppose being unified by the dictatorship.” Li Youtan said.
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