Palau’s President Huizhong arrived in Taiwan on the 28th, accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Palau John Ni, the first U.S. ambassador to visit Taiwan since the breakup of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the United States. According to the Financial Times, the Biden administration is preparing to issue guidelines to make it easier for officials to meet with each other by retaining a large number of pro-Taiwan measures from former President Trump‘s Time, including easing restrictions on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwan officials, a move that could anger China.
Experts had expected that Biden might reverse Trump’s move after he had sharply eased the restrictions before he left office. But the Financial Times quoted a senior Washington official as saying that the Biden Administration is concerned that China is considering seizing control of Taiwan and is preparing to issue diplomatic guidelines, including a focus on encouraging meetings between Taiwan and U.S. officials and further easing restrictions on exchanges between Taiwan and U.S. officials, indicating Biden’s increasingly tough stance on China.
However, sources point out that while Biden will not return to the pre-Trump era guidelines for Taiwan-U.S. exchanges, he will still set restrictions on certain items, such as displaying the Taiwan flag at meetings, including anything related to sovereignty will be excluded.
The support for Taiwanese officials is the latest sign of Biden’s increasingly tougher stance toward China. The Financial Times recently reported that senior U.S. officials believe that Chinese President Xi Jinping may view the resolution of the Taiwan issue as a major achievement for governing legitimacy and performance, and that the U.S. is concerned that Beijing is considering seizing control of Taiwan.
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, a U.S. think tank, noted that it was thought that the Biden administration would not focus so much on Taiwan and would reset the U.S.-China relationship, but that did not happen.
Secretary of State John Blinken said during his confirmation hearings that he wanted to create more space to reach out to Taiwan officials. It is worth noting that even though the U.S. government has adopted a “one-China Policy” that identifies Beijing as the sole government of China, Blinken described Taiwan as a “country” during his congressional testimony on October 10.
Recent Comments