Can Taiwan become the main point of confrontation in the Sino-American rivalry? Over the past few days, Washington has continued to send out signals that plead in favor of a red line for Beijing drawn at the height of the strait that separates the island from the mainland.
On Friday April 9, the US State Department relaxed the rules governing interactions between government officials and their Taiwanese counterparts. Two days later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over “Increasingly aggressive actions on the part of the Beijing authorities towards Taiwan” in an allusion to the multiplication of Chinese incursions into the island’s airspace.
On Tuesday April 13, an unofficial delegation made up of former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd and two former Deputy State Department Secretaries, Richard Armitage and James Steinberg, visited Taiwan. A move that a senior Democratic administration official described as a “Personal signal” of President Joe Biden with respect to the island. A new one ” provocation “ in Beijing’s eyes.
The American president had expressed his determination on this matter as soon as he was sworn in on January 20. He had indeed invited to the ceremony the representative of Taiwan in the United States, who exercises de facto functions of ambassador in the federal capital, Hsiao Bi-khim. It was the first invitation to such an event since the opening of relations between Beijing and Washington.
Original ambiguity
Joe Biden’s political longevity adds a special dimension to the Taiwanese dossier. As a young senator, he had indeed voted in 1979 in favor of the Taiwan Relations Act, the law establishing “Unofficial” between Washington and Taipei. This limitation stemmed from the historic turning point of Sino-American normalization in the same year and the recognition by the United States of the policy of“One China” that the island is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China.
Since that date, cooperation between the United States and the island authorities has been surrounded by this original ambiguity. The 1979 legislation thus requires Washington to provide these authorities with the necessary weapons to ensure their self-defense, but it does not oblige, in black and white, the United States to intervene militarily for the benefit of Taiwan in the event of an invasion. .
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