On Saturday, 9 January 2021, with ten days left of President Donald Trump’s term of office, Mike Pompeo, the outgoing US Secretary of State, announced that all the ‘self-imposed restrictions’ on US official contacts with Taiwan were henceforward ‘null and void’. In the polarised world of American politics the rhetoric was as grand as reactions were predictable, with one former Obama official who handled relations with East Asia dismissing it as a ‘public relations stunt of the first order’. Perhaps more surprising was the relatively low-key Chinese response, a commentator in the state-run Global Times tabloid saying ‘we can completely ignore clowns like Pompeo … US policy on Taiwan is relatively consistent’.
So, was this indeed just a last PR stunt, or is there substance in the announcement?
If the very idea of self-imposed restrictions sounds odd, it reflects the bizarre environment in which most countries conduct their relations with Taiwan, a country with a population and economy roughly the size of Australia’s but which formally they refuse to recognise as such for fear of offending China.
More from Mekong Review
-
Poetry from Rory Harris
-
Residing among ghosts and memories
-
Ducky Tse was an established photographer in Hong Kong when, at the age of fifty, he decided to uproot and relocate to Taiwan. He bought a van and refurbished it, driving it around the country. Through his photographs, he reflects on a new chapter of his life.
- Tags: Issue 22, Michael Reilly, Taiwan