State Department Announces New Taiwan Policy in Final Days of Trump Administration

On January 9th, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced that the US executive branch will be scrapping previous guidelines and norms on restricting high-level visits between the US and Taiwan, through an announcement titled “Lifting Self-Imposed Restrictions in the U.S.-Taiwan Relationship.”This announcement is significant because it is the most sweeping statement of policy for Taiwanese officials visiting the US since the Taiwan Travel Act was signed into law in March of 2018. Although the Taiwan Travel Act provides for high level officials of both countries to visit the other, the State Department controls the actual entry and protocols for such visits.

For decades, the State Department’s actual practice has been to avoid key Taiwanese cabinet members or the president to visit the US capital. The common understanding is that these practices are in place to avoid provoking Beijing if the US recognizes Taiwanese officials as legitimate.

Taiwanese presidents and officials have visited other cities in the US, often as a “transit” or “layover.” President Tsai Ing-wen has visited Washington as a presidential candidate, and has frequently addressed audiences via teleconferencing, yet has not been in DC as president.

According to Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, the “mutual understanding” between Washington and Taipei had been that both Taiwan’s foreign and defense minister may visit the US, but not Washington DC.

In line with changing trends in US policy 

Since 2018, The US has increasingly permitted high-level Taiwan officials to visit DC publicly. The public weeklong visit by Taiwan National Security Advisor David Lee in May 2018 disrupted the norms of keeping similar types of meetings non-public. In 2020, Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te made an appearance in Washington, DC alongside US Vice President Mike Pence at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6th.

Taiwan has also received several high-level US officials in 2020, even waiving the 14 day quarantine requirements for American officials amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The visit of a cabinet-level official, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, on August 10th, 2020, was hailed as the highest level visit since the end of US recognition of Taiwan in 1979. Azar visited Taiwan and met with President Tsai Ing-wen on August 10th, 2020.

This was followed by a substantive visit by the U.S. Undersecretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach, who visited Taiwan on September 16th, 2020 to discuss economic agendas and pay tribute to Lee Tung-hui, a key figure in Taiwan’s democratization.

Another cabinet-level visit to Taiwan by the US Envoy to the UN, Kelly Craft, is scheduled to happen, with a stated purpose of showing Beijing “what a free China could achieve.”

This latest announcement is in some ways consistent with changes in US policy of gradually opening up to more frequent visits by high level officials from both sides. However, it also is a sweeping statement of policy that may have further ramifications. In 2019 a group of Republican senators called for US Congress to invite President Tsai to address a joint session of Congress. The invitation may become a topic of discussion again.

Taiwan’s ambassador to the US, Hsiao Bi-khim, tweeted that the announcement is “decades of discrimination, removed.”

The announcement has received support in Washington. Daniel Blumenthal of right-leaning American Enterprise Institute argued in a tweet that the change to Taiwan guidelines should be “welcomed by all.” Rick Scott, Republican senator from Florida, similarly voiced his support and called Taiwan a “a great ally and partner in the fight against Communist China’s aggression.”

Timing and legacy

It is not surprising for an outgoing administration to try to cement its policy direction and prevent the new administration from reversing course too easily. However, the change in policy comes less than 10 days until the end of the Trump administration, and is not in response to any major events in US-Taiwan relations.

The timing of the announcement is raising eyebrows with some commentators. Bonnie Glaser of Center for Strategic International Studies tweeted “If the Trump administration thought this was in the US national interest, why didn’t they do it four years ago?” Evan Medeiro, a top Asia advisor for Obama and a professor at Georgetown University, called the announcement a “publicity stunt.” and is “likely to have little practical effect,” given the timing.

The announcement also comes just days after President Trump incited his supporters to mount a violent invasion of the US Congress to halt the certification of presidential election results. Trump is facing a possible second impeachment, and several administration officials have resigned in the aftermath of the riots.

As the Trump Administration struggles with its credibility in its last days, the new policy faces a great deal of uncertainty, especially how much of it, if any, the incoming Biden Administration will choose to retain. Tom Wright of the left-leaning Brookings Institution, in a tweet, argued that the decision puts the Biden administration in a “tricky spot” and politizes “what had previously been bipartisan.” Glaser also told Reuters that “the Biden administration will rightly be unhappy that a policy decision like this was made in the final days of the Trump administration.”

Responding to the announcement, the Biden transition team simply said that President Biden will support “a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people of Taiwan.”

For Taiwan’s part, Ambassador Hsiao Bi-khim has been working to connect the Tsai administration to the Biden Administration, recently publicizing a meeting in November 2020 with Biden’s nominee for US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

(Feature photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0)