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SCMP Editorial

Respect for the one-China principle is essential to constructive dialogue with Beijing. US President Donald Trump was reminded of that soon after he took office in the wake of comments that pointed to Taiwan being used as a bargaining chip in negotiations on trade.
This led to Beijing freezing top-level communications. It took a pledge from Trump to honour the policy to fully thaw them.
China-US ties ‘strained by Washington’s mixed signals over Taiwan’
Amid efforts to head off a looming China-United States trade war and heightened tension across the Taiwan Strait, there is no room for further uncertainty over the American stance on what China sees as a core issue.


It is regrettable, therefore, that the US now appears to be sending mixed signals about its Taiwan policy.
Chinese and American sources have told the Post the US will not send a cabinet-level official to the opening of its new de facto embassy in Taipei on Tuesday, to avoid antagonising Beijing.
US to send assistant secretary of state to open de facto embassy in Taiwan
But any relief Beijing might have felt about this would have been tempered by two developments. One was the Pentagon’s decision to increase military support for Taiwan, with strong backing from lawmakers in the US Congress.
The other is a report that the US could send a warship through the Taiwan Strait, following Chinese sea and air exercises in the area that stepped up the pressure on Taiwan, whose leader Tsai Ing-wen refuses to endorse the one-China principle.

At a regional security summit in Singapore earlier this month, US Defence Secretary James Mattis described the stepped-up military support as the provision of “defence articles and services necessary to maintain the island’s sufficient self-defence”.
It was part of a hard line he took towards China, including continued criticism of Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea.
Why new US ‘embassy’ in Taiwan may further rock ties with China
Why new US ‘embassy’ in Taiwan may further rock ties with China
But in a further example of mixed signals, Mattis – known as a relative moderate among hawks who dominate Trump’s inner circle – said he would visit Beijing soon at China’s invitation and continue to pursue a constructive bilateral relationship.
The mixed signals reflect a continuing struggle for influence among Trump’s advisers.
The hawks have had a significant victory this year with the passing of the Taiwan Travel Bill, which forges closer ties through face-to-face official contacts and has already led to visits by senior US lawmakers.


Beijing’s concerns about US trade negotiators coming under pressure to play the Taiwan card are therefore understandable.
US bill calls for Pentagon to send troops to Taiwan military drills
A reported plan to consider arms sales to Taiwan on a case-by-case basis instead of packaging them for easier scrutiny is unlikely to be positive for Sino-US relations.
A decision not to send senior officials to the opening of the new de facto embassy would be an example of the sensitivity on this issue needed to keep bilateral relations on track. The same sentiment should exclude the Taiwan factor from trade negotiations.


F-16 fighter jet crash brings fresh scrutiny to Taiwan’s ageing military equipment

China calls on US to form united front against Japanese militarism

Taiwan to fortify critical facilities and ramp up ammunition output to ward off PLA pressure

North Korea: the elephant in the room when Xi met Lee in Beijing

Taiwan

No room for further uncertainty about the US stance on Taiwan

Kin Moy, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) - the de facto US embassy in Taiwan - answers questions from medias during a press conference in Taipei on May 21. Photo: AP

The new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is seen under construction in Taipei, Taiwan June 2, 2018 REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

US to send assistant secretary of state Marie Royce to Taiwan to open de facto embassy

Ed Royce and his wife Marie Royce meet Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei in 2016. Photo: Wikipedia

In this photograph taken on May 3, 2018, a cameraman records footage outside the newly-built American Institute in Taipei (AIT) building in Taipei. Diplomacy has never been easy for Taiwan and is becoming ever more complex as it is caught between the United States under an unpredictable leader and an increasingly assertive China, which claims the self-ruling island as its own. / AFP PHOTO / SAM YEH / TO GO WITH AFP STORY TAIWAN-CHINA-US-DIPLOMACY-POLITICS,FOCUS BY MICHELLE YUN

The new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is seen in Taipei, Taiwan June 2, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Why new de facto US ‘embassy’ in Taiwan may further rock ties with China

A file picture of US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shaking hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last November. Photo: Reuters

National security adviser John Bolton has largely been a team player, according to people within President Trump's orbit. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford

FILE- In this combination of file photos, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 16, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a meeting with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in in Panmunjom, South Korea, on April 27, 2018. Ahead of a planned summit Tuesday, June 12, in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean autocrat Kim Jong Un, there has been talk of complete denuclearization, North Korea has shut down (for now) its nuclear test site, and senior U.S. and North Korean officials have shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington for meetings with Kim and Trump. The top U.S. diplomat declared that “Chairman Kim shares the objectives with the American people” amid talk of a grand bargain that could see North Korean disarmament met with a massive influx of outside aid. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Korea Summit Press Pool via AP, File)

Taiwan’s military exercise sends three loud and clear messages – to China, the US and its own people

A pair of UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters take part in the Han Kuang military exercise at an air force base in Taichung, central Taiwan, on June 7. The annual drills simulating Chinese attacks are the largest since they were first held in 1984 and are a response to Beijing stepping up military and diplomatic pressure on the island amid growing tensions. Photo: AFP

China-US ties ‘strained by Washington’s mixed signals over Taiwan’, but Mattis trip still on

The United States is considering sailing one of its aircraft carriers though the Taiwan Strait. Photo: AFP

Armed Taiwanese soldiers ride on motorcycles next to a US-made CH-47 helicopter during the "Han Kuang" (Han Glory) life-fire drill, some 7 kms (4 miles) from the city of Magong on the outlying Penghu islands on May 25, 2017. Taiwan forces conducted live-fire war games in its biggest annual military exercise on May 25, presided by President Tsai Ing-wen, as the island faces growing threat from its cross-strait rival China. / AFP PHOTO / SAM YEH

From left, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and China's People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science Deputy President He Lei pose for photos at a ministerial roundtable on the sidelines of the 17th International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-la Dialogue, an annual defense and security forum in Asia, in Singapore, Saturday, June 2, 2018, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Yong Teck Lim)

Taiwanese think tank floats South China Sea base plan for US troops

Taiping Island is controlled by Taipei and the biggest islet in the Spratly chain in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters

epa06325999 A handout photo made available by the U.S. Navy on 13 November 2017 shows the aircraft carriers 'USS Theodore Roosevelt' (CVN 71), 'USS Ronald Reagan' (CVN 76) and 'USS Nimitz' (CVN 68) transiting the Western Pacific, 12 November 2017. The strike groups are underway and conducting operations in international waters as part of a three-carrier strike force exercise. EPA-EFE/US NAVY/ Lt. J.G. JAMES GRIFFIN / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Taiwan Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan gives a speech at Legislative Yuan in Taipei on 25 October 2017. 25OCT17. Photo: CNA

Opinion

The US has been sending mixed signals about its Taiwan policy. But a decision not to send senior American officials to the opening of its new de facto embassy in Taipei is an example of the sensitivity on this issue needed to keep bilateral relations with China on track


US-China relations