US to ease restrictions on meeting Taiwanese officials

US officials will be able to meet more freely with their Taiwanese counterparts under new Biden administration guidelines, the latest move by the White House aimed at checking increased aggression by Beijing in the region.

The new rules, which are to be issued by the US state department on Friday, according to American officials, will ease decades-old restrictions that have hampered meetings between American and Taiwanese diplomats.

The state department decision comes amid mounting US-China tensions over Taiwan, with Beijing stepping up its military posturing around the island in recent months. Senior US military and civilian officials have expressed concern that Beijing has begun flirting with the idea of invading Taiwan.

Ned Price, state department spokesperson, said the guidance underscored that “Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and an important security and economic partner that is also a force for good in the international community”.

One US official said the new rules were intended to “encourage interactions” between American and Taiwanese officials. The guidelines had previously stressed what was not possible in bilateral meetings, the official added. 

Washington has maintained restrictions on meetings with Taiwanese officials since it switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. As China has become increasingly assertive towards Taiwan, the US has become less stringent about the guidelines.

In January, Mike Pompeo, then secretary of state, eliminated the guidelines. That created confusion, however, because government agencies were provided with little guidance and the Trump administration was preparing to leave office.

It was also unclear how the move fit with the US “One China policy,” which states that the government of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing is “the sole legal government” of China.

Under the new guidelines, US officials will be able to regularly host Taiwanese officials at federal government buildings. They will also be permitted to meet their counterparts at Taiwan’s economic and cultural offices, which serve as de facto embassies and consulates.

US officials will also be able to attend events at Twin Oaks, a 17-acre estate in Washington that served as the residence of the Republican of China (Taiwan) ambassador until the US switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

But the US official said there would still be some “guard rails”, such as not allowing officials to attend functions at Twin Oaks on major Taiwanese holidays that might complicate the One China policy.

“We have brought guardrails back but they are much further apart so both sides (Beijing and Taipei) should be happy,” said the official.

The move marks the latest effort to boost support for Taipei as the Chinese military tries to intimidate Taiwan by flying large numbers of fighter jets, bombers and spy planes into its air defence identification zone. President Joe Biden and his officials have made clear to China that American support for Taiwan remains “rock solid”.

It also underscores how Biden is taking a tougher stance towards China than many expected. Biden became the first US president to invite the Taiwanese representative to Washington to a presidential swearing-in ceremony when Hsiao Bi-khim attended his inauguration in January.

While Biden reviewed the guidelines in recent months, there were signs he would take a looser approach than during the Obama administration.

Joseph Young, the acting US ambassador to Japan, recently welcomed his Taiwanese counterpart to his Tokyo residence and publicised the visit on Twitter, echoing a similar move by Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands after Pompeo’s announcement.

Last month, the US envoy to Palau became the first US ambassador to visit Taiwan since 1979, accompanying the president of Palau — one of only 15 nations that recognises Taipei over Beijing — to Taipei. The Palau visit technically occurred with no guidelines in place because the Biden administration was reviewing the policy it inherited from Trump.

In his confirmation hearing, Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said he wanted to create “more space” for contacts between US and Taiwanese officials. Congress in December passed the Taiwan Assurance Act, which required the state department to review the guidelines within 180 days.

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