“It is very important to change the ambiguity of 50 years,” Pompeo said, the top diplomat in the Trump government visiting Taipei in an unofficial capacity on the invitation of think tanks.
“While the US must continue to be involved with the People’s Republic of China as a sovereign government, American diplomatic recognition of 23 million Taiwanese who loved their elected freedom and the government who was democratically elected could no longer be ignored and avoided,” he said in Friday’s speech, referring to the official name of the government in Beijing.
Changes driven by POMPEO will improve more than four decades of “Strategic Ambiguity” in Taiwan, a policy intended to minimize the risk of direct conflict with China, which claims the island is ruled separately as part of its territory even though it has never controlled it.
Pompeo’s call comes at a very sensitive time, because Taiwan’s status has attracted comparisons for Russian invasion to Ukraine. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen has understated worries that the war in Europe could trigger a similar crisis in Asia, said the two situations were “fundamentally different.”
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Since forming diplomatic relations with the Beijing communist government in 1979, M.S. has maintained informal relationships, “people-to-people” with Taiwan while avoiding taking a position in the island’s sovereignty. Every shift in A.S. Maybe it will encourage an angry response from Beijing.
The Chinese Ambassador in Washington, Qin Gang, warned in January that his country and the US would likely be involved in military conflict if the Taiwanese government moved to formalize its independence.