Read on Twitter
This is quite a speech on Taiwan by @USAsiaPacific
Chief Stilwell. It says almost everything Taipei would want the US to say: E.g.: China is the problem, not Taiwan; Taiwan needs more international room. US will keep selling arms to Taiwan. https://www.state.gov/The-United-States-Taiwan-and-the-World-Partners-for-Peace-and-Prosperity/
Chief Stilwell. It says almost everything Taipei would want the US to say: E.g.: China is the problem, not Taiwan; Taiwan needs more international room. US will keep selling arms to Taiwan. https://www.state.gov/The-United-States-Taiwan-and-the-World-Partners-for-Peace-and-Prosperity/
It declassifies cables related to the 1982 "Six Assurance" given by the US to Taiwan, and reaffirms US commitment to those assurances. The Assurances run from the US to Taiwan, but were meant to clarify the limits of what the US would do w/r/t Taiwan when negotiating with China.
To the extent there was any ambiguity on the US position on Taiwan's sovereignty, this speech clarifies that "The U.S. takes no position on sovereignty over Taiwan." which directly contradicts China's claim that the whole world (incl the US) agrees that Taiwan is part of China.
To be fair, the US came very close to China's view in 1972: "The US acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The [US] does not challenge that position." http://www.taiwandocuments.org/communique01.htm
The "US does not challenge" language has always bothered me. What was it supposed to mean? But I think we can see the Six Assurances, and Stilwell's reaffirmation of them today, as ending whatever uncertainty abt the US position that still lingers from Nixon's 1972 statement.
Setting out the US position on these basic principles, as @jessicadrun has noted time and again, is really important to avoid the kind of slow goalpost-shifting that China has pulled off over the years as the US govt clung to its "strategic ambiguity."
I can't recall the last time a @StateDept official gave a speech just on Taiwan policy. Usually, this is all on background during briefings by anonymous officials. This kind of public statement seems new (and welcome, of course).
(I'm not saying Pres Tsai traded controls on US pork imports for this speech, but if she did, it would not have been a bad trade.)
