US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a media briefing at the State Department in Washington, US, November 10, 2020. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via Reuters/File Photo
The US will remove decades-old, self-imposed restrictions on how its diplomats and other officials interact with Taiwan, a move that may inflame tensions with Beijing just a little over a week before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
"For several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a statement Saturday in Washington. "No more.”
The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to reshape the U.S. relationship with Taiwan. Donald Trump accepted a telephone call from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen weeks before taking office in January 2017, has said his support for the "One China” policy was contingent on getting better trade deals, announced arms sales, and sent senior officials to Taipei.
"While the implications of the announcement are not yet clear, it seems the intent is to nudge unofficial U.S.-Taiwan relations toward something more akin to official ties,” said Maggie Lewis, a law professor at Seton Hall Law School who has written extensively on Taiwan and China.
