US will boost security ties with Taiwan, says ‘ambassador’ as he warns mainland China to stop strong-arm tactics
- Washington’s top envoy says America has ‘grave concerns’ over efforts to coerce island into reunification talks
The United States is expected to further increase security cooperation with Taiwan as part of its grand strategy to manage China’s military and economic expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
In an interview with the semi-official Central News Agency in Taiwan, the de facto US ambassador Brent Christensen said he expected to see great advances between Taiwan and the US in four major areas – including security – this year, which marks the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act.
Washington passed the act after it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, and it commits Washington to help the self-ruled island maintain its defences against mainland China.
He expressed America’s “grave concerns” over what he characterised Beijing’s efforts to coerce Taiwan into talks on reunification and warned that Washington would not let Beijing do whatever it wants with regard to the island.
“We certainly urge China to abstain from any coercion that would jeopardise the security or the social, economic system of the people of Taiwan,” he told the agency in the interview published on Wednesday.