United States will lift restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan

 

File photo of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. BBC/Getty.

The United States will lift restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan. BBC. The move will infuriate China who considers Taiwan to be a rouge province, not an independent country. The United States had self imposed restrictions on diplomacy in order to not anger China. It is the latest move for the Trump administration who has moved to normalize relations with Taiwan. Taiwan is considered a major potential flashpoint as China has considered taking back the island with military force. Joe Biden has said that he would continue the status quo relationship with Taiwan and may reverse this decision if Biden is sworn into office later this month. 

My Comment:

This action was long overdue. China's "one China" policy has always been ridiculous and we should have never recognized China's communist government as legitimist, let alone their claims on Taiwan. China is America's biggest foe and it is long past time we stopped doing what they want. 

As for Taiwan they are a much better government to have normal relations with. They are a major market and have an obvious need for high tech weapons that we should be more than happy to sell to them. And unlike Taiwan they don't interfere with our elections, respect human rights and don't threaten us with nuclear antihalation.  

This move is largely symbolic. If Biden gets in (and I won't be predicting anything on that) one of his first moves will be to reverse this. Biden is beholden to China and will not do anything to upset them. It's really just a middle finger to China, and one that they desperately deserve. 

But it might be too late. China is probably furious that this was allowed to happen. They are furious about this and will probably demand that Biden apologize, which he might not be willing or able to do. This will make a return to the status quo a lot more difficult. 

Is there a risk of war with China over Taiwan? Of course there is. China has always wanted to get Taiwan back and not just because of the obvious economic powerhouse that Taiwan is. It's a matter of national pride and it's a terrible insult to China to imply that they actually don't have any say on what Taiwan says or does. 

The problem I see for China is that they just don't have the manpower and ships to take the island back. Taiwan has a powerful military and China probably doesn't have the ability to defeat them right now even if Taiwan got no help from other countries. That doesn't mean they won't try it but if they do it will likely fail.