Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest move on Taiwan could be an important base supporting US-China relations – further complicating a tense bilateral relationship just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
“What Pompeo is doing is laying a whole series of landmines for the upcoming Biden government … salting the earth in US-China relations in general, and laying landmines on Taiwan in particular,” Rudd told CNBCs Monday. Squawk Box Asia “.
Last weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all “self-imposed restrictions” on US relations with Taiwan – a democratic and self-governing island that China claims as its own territory.
Pompeo said in a statement Saturday that for decades the US had had limited unilateral contact between its officials and its Taiwanese counterparts “in an effort to appease the communist regime in Beijing.” He then stated that all those restrictions are “no more.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the US State Department
Win McNamee | Getty Images
The move could spell the end of the “one China policy,” said Rudd, who is now president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
The only Chinese policy is the principle in which the US and the international community recognize that there is only one Chinese government – under the Communist Party of China in Beijing.
“That has been the mainstay of strategic stability for the past 40 years,” said the former Australian leader.
“I think we need to understand that we are moving towards the end of the ‘one China policy’. And what does that mean for markets? What does that mean for the international community? It marks a new period of real strategic instability, as this is a fundamental article of faith in Beijing, ”he added.
The Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing sees the island’s reunification with the mainland as an opportunity and therefore Taiwan has no right to participate in international diplomacy.
China and Taiwan are responding to Pompeo’s move
China has reportedly rejected the US decision to lift restrictions on Taiwan, while Taiwan’s State Department thanked Pompeo on Twitter.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said China opposed Pompeo’s action and will resolutely fight against attempts to sabotage its interests, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Secretary of State Joseph Wu said Pompeo’s lifting of US restrictions on contact with Taiwan is “a big thing,” the news agency reported.
“Relations between Taiwan and the US have become a global partnership. The State Department will not relax our vigilance and hope to continue to encourage the development of ties between Taiwan and the US,” Wu said.
Rudd said Pompeo could be motivated to tighten US stance on China now so he can attack Biden for “ getting soft ” about China as the new administration change the policy. Some media reports cite Pompeo as a potential presidential candidate for 2024.
Nonetheless, the Biden administration is unlikely to shift away from the “strategic ambiguity” that has long been US foreign policy towards Taiwan, Rudd said.
The ambiguity helps maintain “enough doubt” that the US would immediately defend Taiwan if the island were embrace any “reckless policy” such as a unilateral declaration of independence from China, Rudd explained.
The other dimension of the US position involves challenging any assumption by Beijing that Washington will not respond if the mainland takes any military action against Taiwan, Rudd added.
“That is the strategic uncertainty so far. I do not see that as change.”