Comments by the director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) show that the US supports Taiwan’s efforts to crack down on Chinese espionage, but do not represent a substantive change in policy, former US officials and academics said.
President William Lai (賴清德) at a news conference on Thursday last week said that China over the past few years has intensified its efforts to infiltrate Taiwanese society and sow division through influence operations.
Saying that such actions classify China as a “hostile foreign force” under the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法), he proposed measures to counter the threat, including restoring the military court system, tightening restrictions on Chinese travelers and new residents, and monitoring civil servants who travel to China for exchanges.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
AIT Director Raymond Greene in a speech on Monday said that Lai’s initiative would “further enhance [the US’] ability to cooperate with Taiwan.”
Robert Wang (王曉岷), who served as deputy director of the AIT from 2006 to 2009, said he viewed US policy as unchanged in its opposition to any attempt to “unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion.”
“It should be clear to most people that Beijing, with its dramatically increased military exercises and cyberthreats against Taiwan in recent years” is the one changing the “status quo” in a coercive manner, Wang said.
Greene’s statement, which stems from a recognition of this fact, was most certainly approved not only by the US Department of State, but also the US National Security Council, Wang said.
“It appears they consider Lai’s statement justified in the face of Beijing’s recent actions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Richard C. Bush, who served as AIT chairman from 1997 to 2002, said US policy had adjusted to a “significant change in China’s policy approach to Taiwan’s leadership and people,” which began in 2016 after the election of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
From that time, he said, Beijing shifted away from trying to persuade Taiwan to move toward unification and began relying on “coercion without violence” against DPP governments and Taiwanese.
“The US government opposes this use of coercion and so has taken a number of steps to support Taiwan as it seeks to respond,” Bush said.
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