A senior State Department official voiced support for “Taiwan’s freedom and independence” in an unusually emphatic sign of disregard for Beijing’s claim to sovereignty over the island democracy.
“It seems to me preserving Taiwan’s freedom and independence is a priority,” State Department director of policy planning Peter Berkowitz said Wednesday.
That statement comes at a time of widespread concern that Chinese Communist forces will attack Taiwan, fears linked in part to uncertainty about whether the United States would intervene. Berkowitz stopped short of an explicit defense pledge, but his comments likely will anger a Chinese Communist regime that routinely pressures countries not to recognize Taiwan as a legitimate government.
“The State Department has been and the Defense Department has been thinking long and hard about how to assist our free and democratic friends in the region, Taiwan, but of course the larger Indo-Pacific region as well,” Berkowitz told the Foundations for Defense of Democracies.
Berkowitz’s remarks came one day after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen celebrated the beginning of an effort to build submarines to help repel a potential invasion from mainland China.
“The construction demonstrates Taiwan’s strong will to the world to protect its sovereignty,” Tsai said Tuesday in Taipei. “Submarines are important equipment for the development of Taiwan’s navy’s asymmetric warfare capabilities and to deter enemy ships from encircling Taiwan.”
Tsai was joined at the ceremony by American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen, who functions as the unofficial U.S. ambassador to the island government. The U.S. government established official diplomatic relations with the mainland Chinese Communist regime in 1979 but has maintained friendly unofficial relations with the Taiwanese authorities and provided defensive weaponry to the island in order to deter any Chinese attack.
The pace of arms sales increased under President Trump, with a growing emphasis on the coastal defense systems and other arms designed to hamstring a menacing larger force. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team also declassified the Reagan-era diplomatic cables containing the “Six Assurances” — including one stating, “The United States has not agreed to take any position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan” — that the U.S. provided Taiwan after downgrading relations with Taipei in favor of diplomatic ties with Beijing.
“Taiwan has not been a part of China, and that was recognized with the work that the Reagan administration did to lay out the policies that the United States has adhered to now for three and a half decades and done so under both administrations,” Pompeo said earlier this month. “I actually think this is, in fact, bipartisan.”
That statement scandalized Chinese officials, who saw it as rhetorical step toward backing the sovereignty of Taiwan’s government. “We solemnly tell Pompeo and his ilk that any behavior that undermines China’s core interests and interferes with China’s domestic affairs will be met with a resolute counterattack by China,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in response.
Yet President-elect Joe Biden’s inner circle has sent signals that Pompeo’s confidence in the bipartisan support for Taiwan is well placed. Secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken made a point to salute Taiwan’s recent effort to jump-start free trade negotiations with the U.S.
“Stronger economic ties with Taiwan also support our shared democratic values and our common commitment to regional peace and stability,” he tweeted in August.
