{"id":4303,"date":"2021-01-19T08:10:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T08:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=4303"},"modified":"2021-01-19T08:11:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T08:11:52","slug":"trump-upsets-decades-of-u-s-policy-on-taiwan-leaving-thorny-questions-for-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2021\/01\/19\/trump-upsets-decades-of-u-s-policy-on-taiwan-leaving-thorny-questions-for-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Upsets Decades of U.S. Policy on Taiwan, Leaving Thorny Questions for Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/asia_pacific\/trump-biden-taiwan-china\/2021\/01\/13\/1bbadee0-53c0-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, America’s diplomatic dealings with Taiwan were governed by intricate and arcane rules designed to support a key Asian partner without provoking Beijing \u2014 and avoid war in the Taiwan Strait. Details of the U.S. strategy toward China, meanwhile, were shrouded in secrecy. This week, those rules went out the window. With days left in office, the Trump administration has cast aside long-standing policies toward China and Taiwan, both raising expectations and setting new constraints for how the Biden administration will deal with its largest geopolitical competitor. On Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo abruptly lifted U.S. government rules prohibiting interactions between American and Taiwanese diplomats, a move that amounted to a symbolic but significant upgrade in the U.S. relationship with the democratic island, which China claims as its territory. Within days, U.S. diplomats from The Hague to Washington were publicizing meetings with their Taiwanese counterparts, incensing Beijing, while Kelly Craft, the ambassador to the United Nations, prepared to travel to Taipei as the third high-profile U.S. official to visit in just eight months. Craft\u2019s trip was scuttled last-minute as part of a State Department-wide travel freeze, but Trump officials aimed another shot at China and the incoming Biden administration. Late Tuesday, national security adviser Robert C. O\u2019Brien released the full text of the U.S. Asia strategy, a secret 10-page document that highlighted the expansion of China\u2019s \u201cilliberal spheres of influence\u201d as the No. 1 challenge that must be countered, ahead of North Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it seems the Chinese Communist Party has already made the decision to absorb Taiwan.\u00a0 That would be a catastrophe for representative government and freedom around the world.\u00a0 For one thing, what guarantee is there that the PLA would stop there given the Chinese government’s ambitions in the Arctic and in the western Pacific?\u00a0 But most importantly, the U.S must stand with Taiwan in upholding our shared values of individual human rights, democracy, and freedom.\u00a0Taiwan is also an inspiration to the people of Mainland China that without the CCP, they too could be truly free and prosperous and be governed under the rule of law. If the new Biden administration explicitly embraces the change, however, they get volatility and a confrontational relationship with China, which would also cause major problems for the U.S, so ultimately, it’s a lose-lose situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/asia_pacific\/trump-biden-taiwan-china\/2021\/01\/13\/1bbadee0-53c0-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html For decades, America’s diplomatic dealings with Taiwan were governed by intricate and arcane rules designed to support a key Asian partner without provoking Beijing \u2014 and avoid war in the Taiwan Strait. Details of the U.S. strategy toward China, meanwhile, were shrouded in secrecy. This week, those rules went out the window. With days left in office, the Trump… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/158"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4306,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4303\/revisions\/4306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}