Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest step on Taiwan could build an important foundation for US-China relations, further complicating a tense bilateral relationship just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. say former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“What Pompeo is doing is laying a whole series of landmines for the incoming Biden administration … salting the land in the relationship between the United States and China in general, and placing landmines in Taiwan in particular Rudd told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
Over the weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all “self-imposed restrictions” on U.S. relations with Taiwan, a democratic, self-governing island that China claims as its own territory.
Pompeo said in a statement Saturday that the United States had unilaterally limited contact between its officials and its Taiwanese counterparts for several decades “in an attempt to appease the communist regime in Beijing.” He then declared that all these restrictions “are no longer”.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the U.S. Department of State
McNamee wins | Getty Images
That decision could mark the end of China’s “single policy,” said Rudd, who is now president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
China’s only policy is the principle that the US and the international community recognize that there is only one Chinese government: the Communist Party of China in Beijing.
“This has been the mainstay of strategic stability for the last 40 years or so,” the former Australian leader said.
“I think we need to understand that we are moving towards the end of the ‘one China policy.’ And what does this mean for the markets? What does this mean for the international community? It means a new period of real strategic instability. , given that this is a key element of the faith in Beijing, ”he added.
The Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing considers the reunification of the island with the mainland to be an eventuality and therefore Taiwan has no right to participate in its international diplomacy.
China and Taiwan react to Pompey’s measure
According to reports, China criticized the US decision to lift restrictions on Taiwan, while Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry thanked Pompeo on Twitter.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said China was opposed to Pompeo’s measure and would resolutely fight attempts to sabotage its interest, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said Pompeo’s removal of U.S. restrictions on contact with Taiwan is “an important thing,” the news agency reported.
“Taiwan-US relations have risen to a global partnership. The Foreign Ministry will not drop its guard and hopes to continue to push forward the development of Taiwan-US ties,” Wu said.
Rudd said Pompeo might be motivated to toughen the U.S. stance on China now so he can attack Biden because he has “hardened” against China in case the new administration make any policy changes. Some press reports have named Pompeo as a potential candidate for the 2024 presidency.
However, the Biden administration is unlikely to move away from the “strategic ambiguity” that has long been U.S. foreign policy over Taiwan, Rudd said.
The ambiguity helps maintain the “sufficient doubt” that the U.S. would immediately defend Taiwan in the event of the island embrace any “reckless policy” as a unilateral declaration of independence from China, Rudd explained.
The other dimension of the U.S. stance involves challenging any Beijing assumption that Washington will not react if the continent takes any military action against Taiwan, Rudd added.
“That’s the strategic ambiguity so far. I don’t see that changing.”