The U.S. Department of State announced on the 9th that it had completed new guidelines for interactions with Taiwan, but did not announce the specifics; a State Department spokesperson gave an example via email that the U.S. encourages working-level meetings to be held in federal buildings and also at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the U.S., which were explicitly prohibited by past guidelines.
It is understood that this will allow U.S. officials to enter TECRO offices, Twin Oaks; past Taiwan representatives to the U.S. and other officials to the State Department to visit U.S. officials, but also from “can do not say” to explicitly implement.
The Financial Times reported that U.S. officials can attend events at Twin Oaks, but are not allowed to participate in Taiwan’s major festivals to avoid complicating the U.S. “one-China policy. It is reported that the so-called may complicate the U.S. one-China policy of major holiday events, is the National Day reception.
The Financial Times quoted U.S. officials as saying, “There is no lifting of these restrictions, but they are separated more so that both sides of the Taiwan Strait will be happy.”
A State Department spokesman said the guidelines for engagement with Taiwan are intended to deepen and expand the unofficial U.S.-Taiwan relationship and encourage the U.S. government to engage with Taiwan and, in the process, implement the principles of the U.S. government’s One-China policy.
The spokesman said the United States will continue to maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S.-China Joint Communiqué and the Six Assurances.
The guidelines were announced by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Jan. 9 of this year, when he lifted restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations, calling them “self-imposed” restrictions that would allow the executive branch to invalidate previous State Department guidelines on relations with Taiwan.
A State Department spokesman said the removal of the guidelines was detrimental to dealings with Taiwan and that the actual policy effect of the decision was to impede unofficial U.S. dealings with Taiwan, a problem the State Department is now correcting by issuing new guidelines.
Sources close to the matter said that Pompeo and current Secretary of State Antony Blinken both hope to improve past restrictions on Taiwan-U.S. exchanges and promote more interaction and cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S. Pompeo repealed the guidelines for interaction with Taiwan in January of this year, hoping that Taiwan-U.S. relations should not be limited by the past framework, but at the implementation level, many U.S. administration officials are not sure how to interpret them, including a statement at the time that But on the implementation level, many U.S. administration officials are not sure how to interpret them, including the statement at the time that all interactions between the two sides, no matter how detailed, must go through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), making some ministries more cautious.
Sources said the new guidelines specifically address Taiwan’s concerns about official contacts and other matters, and cover the spirit of relaxing restrictions on contacts and encouraging the U.S. executive branch to interact with me, which will help Taiwan and the U.S. have more systematic and open contacts and interactions, reflecting the close cooperative relationship between Taiwan and the U.S.
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