BEIJING (AP) – China’s state media attacked Taiwan’s latest move by the Trump administration, which it left, accusing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “trying to maliciously initiate a long-lasting scar on ties between China and the US “
A writer from the official Xinhua news agency also said Sunday in a comment that the removal of long-standing restrictions on U.S. government contacts with his Taiwanese counterparts shows that Pompeo “is only interested in provoking unwarranted clashes. and has no interest in world peace. “
Another comment posted online by CGTN, the English-language channel of the state broadcaster CCTV, called Pompeo’s announcement a “cowardly act of sabotage” by the next US administration.
“The Trump administration, in its ongoing efforts to burn down the house before leaving office, has crossed a dangerous red line with China days before incoming President Joe Biden takes office,” it read in part. in the comment.
Biden takes office on January 20.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese government on Pompeo’s decision to end State Department restrictions on how U.S. officials can interact with Taiwan, which he said had been implemented to appease. the communist regime in Beijing.
“No more,” Pompeo said in a statement on Saturday. “Today I announce that I will lift all these self-imposed restrictions.”
Taiwan is a sensitive issue for China’s ruling Communist Party, which sees the self-governing island of 23.6 million people as a renegade province that should remain under its rule.
Under the one-China policy, the US recognizes Beijing as the government of China and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, it maintains unofficial contacts, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, the capital, and provides military equipment for the island’s defense.
Taiwan’s leaders welcomed Pompey’s announcement.
“We are expressing our gratitude to the US for speaking out and supporting Taiwan,” Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang told reporters. “We also look forward to actively interacting with each other, so that Taiwan can have an even greater place in international society.”
He and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, who thanked Pompeo on Twitter, emphasized the values of freedom and democracy shared by Taiwan and the United States, a contrast to the authoritarian single-party state of the United States. China.
Pompeo’s announcement came two days after he said he would send Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to Taiwan to meet this week. It must arrive on Wednesday.
Craft’s trip follows one by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar in August, the first cabinet member to visit Taiwan since 2014 and another by Undersecretary of State Keith Krach in September .
China, which opposes Taiwan having its own foreign relations, harshly criticizes all this interaction. Last year it intensified Taiwan’s air patrols and used its diplomatic weight to prevent Taiwan from participating in international forums, such as the annual meeting of the World Health Organization.
Hu Xijin, editor of the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times, tweeted that if Pompey’s announcement is the new starting point for Taiwan’s US policy, it will also mark the beginning of the countdown to the survival of Taiwan. government of Taiwan.
“Fighter jets (from China) can fly over the island of Taiwan at any time,” he tweeted. “The option of using military means to resolve (the) Taiwan issue will also be put on the table.”
Pompeo said the United States maintains relations with unofficial partners around the world and that Taiwan is no exception.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.