Washington maintains ‘strong, bipartisan’ support for Taipei, the American Institute in Taiwan said
The national flag of Taiwan on September 24, 2022 in Kinmen, Taiwan © Getty Images / Annabelle Chih/Getty Images
The US State Department’s official website has removed a reference to Taiwan as a ‘country’ in its travel advisory section, according to a report on Wednesday by Taiwan News.
According to the Taipei-based news organization, on Tuesday the State Department’s website removed the term ‘country information page’ and replaced it with a link to a section now called ‘Taiwan international travel information.’
A spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, which acts in an unofficial capacity as a de-facto US embassy on the disputed territory, refused to engage with questions from Taiwan News about the reasons behind the switch, but told the publication that official US policy on Taiwan remains unchanged.
The US State Department frequently updates sections of its website, the institute told Taiwan News, and it has “longstanding, strong, bipartisan US support for Taiwan in line with our One-China policy.”
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The United States acknowledges Beijing’s One-China policy, which states that there is only one legitimate government of China’s territory and that Taiwan is a breakaway province from the mainland. However, Washington maintains informal ties with self-governing Taipei and frequently supplies it with arms, which, it says, are defensive in nature.
In June, the Biden administration approved the sale of $440 million worth of weapons sales to Taipei, prompting a stern rebuke from officials in Beijing. The United States is “creating tensions and undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said of the deal in June.
In 1979, Washington passed the Taiwan Relations Act which legally requires the United States to supply defensive arms to Taipei. It also states a policy that “the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, told Taiwan News that it has no comment on the changes made to the US State Department’s website. However, it added that the island remains an independent democratic country. “The Republic of China (ROC) and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and the future of the ROC, Taiwan, must follow the will of all Taiwanese people,” it said.
