My Take | US clarification over Taiwan much needed
- White House’s Asia chief Kurt Campbell is right to reaffirm the one-China policy, if only Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen would get the message
The United States has done some right things over Taiwan lately; and that’s why the self-ruled island is angry. Its foreign ministry has asked Washington to avoid causing “unnecessary speculation or misunderstanding” after the White House Covid-19 Response Team deleted a tweet that contained the island’s flag.
I thought the deletion was precisely to avoid “unnecessary speculation or misunderstanding”. Earlier this week, the task force posted a tweet that showed the flags of nations receiving vaccine donations from the US, and Taiwan’s flag was shown.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was ecstatic and replied to the post with the caption: “Thank you to the US for your generosity. Together, we will beat this pandemic.” Sadly for her, the original US tweet was quickly removed by the White House.
The island’s foreign ministry expressed displeasure to the US, which in turn expressed displeasure by not deigning to respond publicly. It’s not clear whether Washington replied in private.
We all know Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party not so secretly crave independence, but all those sneaky moves and hidden messages are just unbecoming.