Taiwan’s representative to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, suddenly changed her Twitter profile’s description to “Taiwan Ambassador to the US”, stirring up infinitely imagination: Are the United States and Taiwan really establishing diplomatic relations?

Various indications have shown that the U.S.-Taiwan relations have indeed warmed up greatly. First of all, Kelly Craft, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations met with Taiwan’s representative, James Lee, for lunch in New York. Not only was that a historic meeting, but she also publicly pledged to promote Taiwan’s re-entry into the United Nations. In addition, following U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar’s visit, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach also visited Taiwan and became the most senior State Department official to visit Taiwan after the severance of diplomatic relations between the United States and Taiwan. Moreover, Krach proposed to promote the Economic Prosperity Network after the pandemic, through tax cuts and subsidies and in collaboration with allies such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korean, to bolster the reconfiguration of the global supply chain to reduce the degree of dependence on China. This visit to Taiwan is an affirmation of Taiwan’s role. At the same time, the United States is preparing to sell seven advanced defense weapons to Taiwan, which is simply tailor-made to fight the CCP’s military reign.

These U.S.-Taiwan interactions are only the ones seen by the outside world, and there should have been even more frequent private exchanges. Surely, the United States has once again picked up the dusty “Taiwan card”, which has greatly increased Taiwan’s strategic position. The so-called “Taiwan card” is to use Taiwan to restrain and attack Beijing. In the 1950s, the CCP intervened in the Korean War, causing the United States and China to turn against each other, and the two even had a military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula. At the time, the U.S. Seventh Fleet was deployed to station in the Taiwan Strait to deter the CCP from attacking Taiwan. Entering into the 1970s, the U.S. shifted its strategic focus to the former Soviet Union. Taiwan’s status dropped sharply due to its cooperation with the CCP to fight against the Soviet Union together. The “Taiwan” card was almost discarded during the Clinton and Obama eras.

Now that the U.S. and China are, again, not on good terms, Trump logically attempts to elevate the U.S.-Taiwan relations to restrict and counter Beijing. In fact, the United States' “global besiegement of China” and other strategic moves such as the decoupling from China, Taiwan is the key in all of them. Without going far, just with the semiconductor supply chain, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), tops the world in semiconductor wafer (chip) foundry. Its production ability of precision chips is far beyond that of European and American companies (5nm has been mass-produced, and 3nm is soon achievable, while China’s leading SMIC has just announced that it is studying 40nm chips). Huawei has a deadline to beat in terms of spending a special flight to Taiwan to snatch up TSMC’s chips before the U.S. ban, showing how important this is. Therefore, not only was TSMC’s founder Morris Chang also invited to Tai Ing-wen’s banquet for Krach, but he stood at the center of the group photo, making him the protagonist of the banquet.

However, Krach, Azar, and others are only ministerial-level officials. Although their visits to Taiwan bears symbolic significance, they should not be read too much into. In the 1970s, China and the United States broke the ice, but it was not until the U.S. Secretary of State, Kissinger, made a secret visit to China, followed up an official visit by Nixon, to officially establish diplomatic relations after a few years. Hsiao Bi-khim also clarified later that, “My official title for interacting with U.S. government and agencies is still ‘Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office’.” Although the United States and Taiwan are not establishing diplomatic relations for the time being, their actual relationship is for sure elevating with the decoupling between China and the United States.

(Poon Siu To, veteran journalist)

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play