Taiwan and US planning talks to counter Beijing’s thrust for unification
- Senior Washington official will take part in discussions in September, according to US ‘ambassador’
- Announcement follows heightened pressure from mainland China
Taiwan and the US will hold talks later this year as part of upgraded efforts to counter Beijing’s growing pressure on the island for unification.
The talks planned for September in Taipei will include a senior official from Washington, William Brent Christensen, the de facto US ambassador to Taipei, said on Tuesday.
Christensen did not say whether the consultations were meant to provoke mainland China or push it to make changes. The US has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing but maintains strong ties with Taipei though the American Institute in Taiwan, its de facto embassy, which has recently undergone a major upgrade in facilities.
“We believe it’s possible to have a good relationship with Taiwan and a good relationship with China at the same time,” Christensen said at a news conference. “Things we do with Taiwan should not be regarded as things that we are doing because we are seeking to provoke China or vice versa.”
President Donald Trump has elevated 40 years of informal ties with Taiwan through more open contacts and planned arms deals. Meanwhile, Beijing and Washington are enmeshed in a dispute over trade, copyrights and tariffs, raising economic and political frictions to their highest level in a decade.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the “Indo-Pacific Democratic Governance Consultations” – as the dialogue is termed – would allow the two sides to “grow closer and more direct in their cooperation … to protect regional freedom and legal order.”
Taiwan has been democratically ruled for about 30 years. It allows freedom of expression and religion – in contrast to mainland China’s tight restrictions under the Communist Party – and remains a close US ally in the Asia-Pacific region.
While Beijing insists that Taiwan is its territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, more than 70 per cent of Taiwanese oppose Beijing’s goal of unification, the government’s Mainland Affairs Council spokesman said in January.
Many fear Beijing would eliminate Taiwan’s democratic institutions.
While there was no immediate word from Beijing, the mainland will “most definitely” protest against the consultations, said Shane Lee, a political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan.
The mainland has used military fly-bys, aircraft carrier movements and diplomatic pressure as warnings to Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen took office there in 2016.
Tsai’s party embraces greater Taiwanese independence from mainland China, which has resulted in a strong backlash from Beijing.
Beijing has cut all formal ties with Tsai’s government, blockaded the island’s participation in international forums and persuaded five countries to cut diplomatic ties with it.
The mainland and Taiwan split after the end of Chinese civil war in 1949. Washington switched its official recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
But Taiwan still counts the United States as its staunchest informal ally, particularly as a source of advanced weapons systems.
Last year Trump signed a bill encouraging more high-level exchanges between the two governments, inflaming Beijing.
In another sign of stronger US-Taiwan ties, Tsai is expected to stop over in US territory once or twice during a trip starting Thursday to visit diplomatic allies in the South Pacific. Beijing has protested to the United States against her previous stopovers.
