The US takes no position on the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty, the US Department of State said on Saturday, after Beijing accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “meddling in China’s internal affairs” over his comment that “Taiwan has not been a part of China.”
“The US has long had a ‘one China’ policy,” a department spokesperson said. “This is distinct from Beijing’s ‘one China’ principle, under which the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] asserts sovereignty over Taiwan. The United States takes no position on sovereignty over Taiwan.”
The spokesperson said the US’ “one China” policy remains guided by the US’ Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques between the US and China, and the “six assurances” to Taiwan, as it has been in the past fours decades.
“The fundamental US interest is that the Taiwan question be resolved peacefully, without coercion, and in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait — as Beijing promised,” the spokesperson said.
During a telephone interview with the Hugh Hewitt Show radio program aired on Thursday, Pompeo was asked if Washington’s commitments to Taiwan were bipartisan and if Beijing should realize that the commitments are bipartisan, while there is “crazy talk among most elements of the CCP that Taiwan ought to be retaken by force if necessary.”
Pompeo said “Taiwan has not been a part of China, and that was recognized with the work that the [former US president Ronald] Reagan administration did to lay out the policy that the United States has adhered to now for three-and-a-half decades and has done so under both administrations.”
“I actually think this is, in fact, bipartisan,” he added.
Asked for comments on Friday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said Pompeo was “meddling in China’s internal affairs,” while China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Pompeo’s statement has betrayed Beijing’s “one China” principle and the Three Joint Communiques.
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