{"id":101942,"date":"2021-01-11T03:39:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T21:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/us-lifts-ban-on-official-contacts-with-taiwan-so-whos-coming\/"},"modified":"2021-01-11T15:42:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T09:42:32","slug":"us-lifts-ban-on-official-contacts-with-taiwan-so-whos-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/us-lifts-ban-on-official-contacts-with-taiwan-so-whos-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"US Lifts Ban on Official Contacts with Taiwan. So, Who’s Coming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taiwan should expect one or two senior visitors this month and an open door in the years ahead following the U.S. government\u2019s decision Saturday to lift its ban on high-level contacts, a rule it had observed to get along with the Asian island\u2019s political rival China, scholars believe.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo declared Saturday that previous restrictions on Taiwan-bound travel by American diplomats, service members and other officials were \u201cnull and void.\u201d He said the U.S. government had been living by the self-imposed rules in an \u201cattempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s administration has warmed toward Taiwan diplomatically and militarily since 2017 as the U.S. clashes with old Cold War foe China over trade, technology sharing and consular issues. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and gets angry when the United States supports Taipei. <\/p>\n

\"The US State Department Ends Restrictions on Contacts with Taiwan Officials Pompeo says Taiwan is a \u2018reliable' and \u2018unofficial\u2019 partner <\/p>\n

The U.S. government that has catapulted relations with Taipei to their strongest since the 1970s \u2013 part of a joint resistance against China \u2013 already confirmed last week it would send its U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft to Taiwan January 13-15. Taiwan, despite years of protests, cannot join the United Nations nor its agencies, such as the World Health Organization, as Chinese allies block most bids for Taiwanese participation.<\/p>\n

Pompeo himself could reach Taiwan before Trump\u2019s scheduled departure from the White House January 20, some analysts say. Pompeo has not made such an announcement, but the Chinese state-monitored Global Times news website raised the possibility of a \u201ca surprise visit to Taiwan before he steps down to make the upgrade of official exchanges between the U.S. and the Taiwan island an established fact\u201d.<\/p>\n

A trip by Pompeo would carry more U.S. foreign policy weight compared to officials who have visited Taiwan before, meaning a stronger jab at China, said Kwei-bo Huang, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat seems to be what the Chinese are targeting the most,\u201d said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center research group in Washington. \u201cThey just want Trump to go away quickly and quietly without getting into any trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FILEBeijing Warns US Will Pay 'Heavy Price' if UN Ambassador Goes to TaiwanChina deems it \u2018crazy provocation\u2019<\/p>\n

China stepped up military flights into Taiwan\u2019s air defense identification zone after U.S. health secretary Alex Azar traveled to Taiwan in August and state department undersecretary Keith Krach arrived a month later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Pompeo can come over, the People\u2019s Liberation Army will definitely intensify its stance, and it will become stronger,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n

Trump himself could technically visit Taiwan but would gain little from a trip as mounting transfer-of-power issues swirl in Washington, Sun said.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials began liberalizing high-level contact with Taiwan in 2018 when Congress passed the Taiwan Travel Act, which says U.S. policy should let officials visit Taiwan \u201cto meet their Taiwanese counterparts\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Communist leadership in Beijing has called Taiwan its own since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s Nationalists lost to Mao Zedong\u2019s forces and rebased on the nearby island. Most Taiwanese said in government surveys two years ago they oppose unification with modern China.<\/p>\n

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen supports that sentiment and seeks closer U.S. ties as a counterweight. The United States cut ties with Taiwan in 1979 in favor of the fast-growing China but retains a strong informal relationship with the island.<\/p>\n

China-Taiwan ties deteriorated last year as Taiwan-U.S. relations improved. Chinese military aircraft increased flights near the island in mid-2020 and the two sides lack a mechanism to hold formal talks.<\/p>\n

The Taiwan government welcomed Pompeo\u2019s statement Sunday and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu tweeted that the curbs on high-level visits were \u201cunnecessarily limiting our engagements these past years.\u201d<\/p>\n

President-elect Joe Biden is widely expected to engage China more fervently than Trump. He will support \u201ca peaceful resolution\u201d of China-Taiwan issues, Taiwan government-funded Central News Agency reported Sunday, citing a member of Biden's transition team.<\/p>\n

Pompeo\u2019s order Saturday on lifting travel rules seeks to make Taiwan policy direction \u201cirreversible\u201d, Sun said. Biden can leverage Pompeo\u2019s edict to reach out to Taiwan as needed without excessive anger from China, said Derek Grossman, senior analyst with the U.S.-based Rand Corp. research institution. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think when a soon-to-be past administration makes a decision, then the new administration doesn\u2019t have to worry as much about that, because it\u2019s already been done,\u201d Grossman said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taiwan should expect one or two senior visitors this month and an open door in the years ahead following the U.S. government\u2019s decision Saturday to lift its ban on high-level contacts, a rule it had observed to get along with the Asian island\u2019s political rival China, scholars believe. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo declared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}