US calls Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan ‘a threat to all democracies’

Washington’s top diplomat in Taipei says mainland China’s ‘increasingly aggressive behaviour’ is nowhere more evident than in relation to the island

Sandra Oudkirk also says the United States remains committed to helping Taiwan ‘maintain its ability to deter aggression and to defend itself’

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The top US diplomat in Taipei says Beijing’s “provocative military activities” near the island are destabilising and undermine regional peace and stability. Photo: Military News Agency, ROC

Published: 3:13pm, 31 Mar 2022

Beijing’s diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan represents a threat to all democracies and the United States is committed to helping the island defend itself, the top US diplomat in Taipei said.

Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan event late on Wednesday, Sandra Oudkirk, director of the American Institute in Taiwan which handles relations in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, said managing US differences with China faces “distinct challenges”.

“The PRC’s increasingly aggressive behaviour is nowhere more evident than in relation to Taiwan, where the PRC has continued to exert military, diplomatic and economic pressure,” she said, referring to the People’s Republic of China, in remarks released by her office on Thursday.

“The PRC’s provocative military activities near Taiwan are destabilising, risk miscalculation, and undermine regional peace and stability,” Oudkirk added, at the event also attended by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

“Continued efforts by Beijing to choke Taiwan’s international space, pressure its friends, and interfere in Taiwan’s democratic system represent a threat to all democracies.”

AIT director Sandra Oudkirk says the US has been working with Taiwan on supply chains. Photo: Handout

Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and has over the past two years or so ramped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert those claims.