Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s lifting of year-long restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations before he left office was seen as a major development in bilateral relations. Pompeo said on March 9 that those restrictions were unjustified and that more open dialogue between the U.S. and Taiwan would be good for both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as the region and the world.
In an exclusive video interview, Mike Pompeo discussed the reasons for his decision to lift restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations. He said, “We started looking at them (the restrictions) and realized that this is just crazy and that we have a whole other set of provisions that don’t make sense.”
He noted that given the agreement between the U.S. and China, the U.S. and Taiwan have a clear set of “understandings” that the U.S. side wants to continue to follow, “but these (restrictions) have been layered on top of each other like barnacles month after month, year after year, so we decided to take a full look at it. “
Pompeo said that after the review, they determined that the reasonable approach for the United States is to have more dialogue between the United States and Taiwan, not less, and to have more open dialogue, not more hidden dialogue, and to handle the matter in a way that is consistent with the long-standing “one-China Policy” of the United States, “and so we So that’s what we’re doing.”
Pompeo said he thought it would be good for the people of mainland China and for the people of Taiwan, and that it would be better for the entire region and even for the world if the United States could talk to Taiwan without these “unreasonably stupid administrative restrictions.
Pompeo’s big announcement to lift long-standing U.S. restrictions on U.S.-Taiwan relations 11 days before he stepped down as secretary of state on Jan. 20 was seen as another major breakthrough in U.S.-Taiwan relations in recent years.
These restrictions have existed for many years and have been adjusted several times during that period, including the fact that personnel from Taiwan’s representative office in the U.S. are not allowed to enter the U.S. State Department, Taiwan is not allowed to raise the flag at Twin Oaks, and the Republic of China flag and other symbols of sovereignty are not allowed to be displayed in U.S. government agencies.
After Pompeo announced the lifting of the restrictions, Representative to the U.S. Mei-Chin Hsiao went to the State Department on February 10 to meet with Acting Assistant Secretary for Asia and the Pacific Jin Cheng; Acting Chief of Mission to the World Trade Organization David Bisbee was invited to meet with Taiwan’s Representative to the WTO Changfa Luo on February 11; and Representative to Japan Chang-ting Hsieh was invited to The Japanese Ambassador’s residence to meet with Acting Ambassador Joseph M. Young. Joseph M. Young).
In response to recent calls from some members of Congress for the U.S. to strengthen its relationship with Taiwan, such as abandoning its long-standing policy of strategic ambiguity, negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan or renaming its representative office in the U.S., Pompeo said there has been great progress between the U.S. and Taiwan, and he wanted to give President Joe Biden‘s administration a chance to review the issues before commenting.
Pompeo noted that these are very important issues, and what he can say is that the vast majority depends on the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party. Many people have asked him what the U.S.-China relationship should look like, and his answer is the same.
He said it depends on whether the Chinese Communist Party realizes that the international community is only asking them to act like a “normal country” in the world and not to engage in predatory economic practices or threaten other countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs). “They (the Chinese Communist Party) talk a lot about win-win, but I’ve never seen a win-win, only a win for China (the Chinese Communist Party) and a loss for the country they’re dealing with.”
Pompeo said he hopes the CCP will change direction, something he believes the Chinese people want to see and knows will improve the situation for the Chinese people. He said countries have a basic understanding of how the world has worked for the past several decades, and if the CCP doesn’t change course, the world should stand united against what the CCP government is doing that goes against basic international understanding.
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