The United States dropped a subtle hint to China that it is ready to change its stance on Taiwan as it changed the wording on its US-Taiwan relations page. The change that stood out was that it excised the sentence ‘The US does not support Taiwan independence’ completely on the updated page.
https://twitter.com/michaelsobolik/status/1523786284141285376?s=20&t=Neshho4HdTWRWfKgeNYQyA
There was another notable change where the page says that the US’ relations with Taiwan is ‘guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three US-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances’. This is in stark contrast to the previous wording where the US said that it ‘acknowledged ‘the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China’.
China is likely to be irked by the complete removal of the line – The US does not support Taiwan independence.
https://twitter.com/BethanyAllenEbr/status/1523790434409259008?s=20&t=Neshho4HdTWRWfKgeNYQyA
The US on several occasions – most notably after the Biden administration took charge – insisted that the US does not support Taiwan independence. Joe Biden, the US president, while speaking to reporters in November, said that Taiwan ‘is independent and makes its own decisions’ but when asked to clarify, Biden said that he did not support Taiwan’s independence.
“They have to decide — Taiwan, not us. We are not encouraging independence,” Biden said.
The changes made to the State Department’s page last week raises questions if the US is changing its stance on the issue. The ambiguity in the statement still exists but the changes to the website were made keeping China in mind.
The wording change also comes in the same week China conducted a full strength military drill with its flagship aircraft carrier Liaoning and several other frigates and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force to show the US and its allies that it could sever Taiwan off from the rest of the world if it chooses to ‘reunite’ Beijing with Taipei.
Washington is also playing a balancing act with Beijing. While on its new web page it bats for stronger strategic, trade and diplomatic ties with Taipei on the other hand it is discussing whether to lower tariffs on Chinese imports. Even though US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai said that reducing tariffs on Chinese imports is on the list but due to rising inflation it could be a hard objective to achieve.
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