Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Voice of America (VOA) headquarters on November 11.
The U.S. Department of State recently announced the lifting of restrictions on travel between U.S. and Taiwan officials, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo further said on the 11th that this is not a hasty decision, but after many considerations, he had hoped earlier that the U.S. side could do so.
The decision to lift the restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations was announced by Mike Pompeo in a written statement on the 9th, to which the governments of Beijing and Taiwan have responded, and which has become a hot topic across the Taiwan Strait in the media and the Internet.
It is understood that the former U.S. President Barack Obama (Barack Obama) during his term of office had set: Taiwan’s representative office staff in the United States shall not enter the State Department, Taiwan shall not raise the flag in Twin Oaks, and the United States government agencies shall not display the flag of the Republic of China and other restrictions.
When Pompeo spoke at the Voice of America (VOA) headquarters on November 11, VOA Director Robert Reilly asked Pompeo about his recent joint statement with Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom condemning the mass arrests of pan-democrats by the Hong Kong government and the lifting of restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations, as well as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft’s visit to Taiwan. Through this series of actions, what do you expect to achieve?”
Pompeo responded that these actions are an important part of the strategy to defend and sustain U.S. freedoms, “I wish we had taken these actions earlier, not in haste, but as part of our pre-established strategy to defend and protect U.S. freedoms in the face of Chinese Communist provocations.”
Pompeo also noted that he has repeatedly stressed in public in the past that he wants to “distrust and verify” in the face of the Chinese Communist Party. He said the Chinese Communist Party made promises to the people of Hong Kong that it eventually broke, and that the U.S. and China have a series of “tacit agreements” regarding Taiwan, and the U.S. wants to make sure the Chinese Communist Party keeps those promises.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Bonnie Glaser, a cross-strait expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), pointed out that Pompeo’s move may be a way to force the Biden administration to continue the Trump administration’s policy toward Taiwan by announcing the news. He said, according to his observation, the Trump administration has been considering whether to lift the restrictions on the interaction between Taiwan and U.S. officials for the past year or so.
According to Ge Laiyi’s analysis, one of the Trump administration’s objectives is to use Taiwan to “deal with” the Chinese (Republic of). In his view, the visit of U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft to the United Nations, for example, was announced in a statement by Pompeo condemning the Communist Party’s mass arrests of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong.
Lev Nachman, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine, argued that Pompeo’s announcement to lift restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan exchanges should be in fulfillment of the commitment to promote high-level diplomatic interaction between the two sides as mentioned in the Taipei Act and the Taiwan Travel Act passed by the U.S. Congress.
The new secretary of state under the Biden administration has not disclosed the details, so it is difficult to know exactly what restrictions on interaction were lifted, Nangle said.
Blinken, the Biden administration’s new choice for secretary of state, will be forced to take a position on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwan officials early in his tenure.
Nanle told Deutsche Welle that Pompeo’s move could be interpreted as an attempt to further promote higher-level diplomatic interaction between Taiwan and the United States. He believes that this statement can not be tied to the Biden administration’s policy on Taiwan, but the new Secretary of State may change at the beginning of his term will be forced to take a position.
The U.S. State Department announced on the 9th to lift restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations, and U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Hoekstra (right) took the lead in inviting Representative to the Netherlands Chen Xinxin to the embassy for a meeting on the 11th.
Just days after the U.S. State Department announced on the 9th that restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations would be lifted, U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Hoekstra took the lead yesterday (11th) in inviting Representative to the Netherlands Chen Hsin-sin to the embassy for a meeting, and posted on social media that he had made history and supported Taiwan with his actions.
Yesterday, the tweets of Taiwan’s representative office in the Netherlands also received congratulatory messages or messages from members of the Dutch parliament who are friendly to Taiwan, as a testimony to the breakthrough in Taiwan-US relations.
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