US panel warns Trump ditching one-China policy is ‘exceedingly dangerous’
Trump could destabilise Asia-Pacific region and leave Taiwan vulnerable
The Trump administration shouldn’t abandon long-standing US policy on the status of Taiwan, a prominent panel of China specialists said Tuesday, calling such a move “exceedingly dangerous.”
Before taking office, President Donald Trump questioned Washington’s “one-China policy” that shifted diplomatic recognition from self-governing Taiwan to China in 1979. He said it was open to negotiation.
But former US officials and scholars said in a report that such an approach could destabilise the Asia-Pacific and leave Taiwan more vulnerable.
US-China relations are at a “precarious crossroads” and the two world powers could be on a “collision course,” it said, describing a rivalry that is growing amid Beijing’s assertion of territorial claims in the disputed South and East China Seas.
The report is the product of an expert task force convened by the Asia Society and the University of California San Diego. It includes former officials who have served both Democratic and Republican administrations — two key Asia policymakers for the Obama administration among them: Kurt Campbell, who served as top diplomat for East Asia during Obama’s first term, and Evan Medeiros, who was White House senior director for Asian affairs.
China has bristled at the “one China” comments by Trump, who wants to pressure Beijing to narrow its huge trade surplus with America. Beijing also warned of instability in East Asia after Trump’s defence secretary, Jim Mattis, said last week on a trip to the region that a US commitment to defend Japanese territory applies to an island group that China claims. The Trump administration has cast its China policy as part of a “peace through strength” approach.