US is ‘eroding’ one-China policy over Taiwan, former top envoy says

Beijing says Washington’s inconsistent stance on ‘one China’ is a betrayal of foundation of diplomatic ties
US now more focused on preventing China from changing status quo in Taiwan Strait instead of reassuring Beijing that Taipei will not change it

US-China relations

Kawala Xie

Published: 11:00pm, 26 Apr, 2023

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The United States is allowing for more strategic ambiguity in its one-China policy as it seeks to deter Beijing over Taiwan, a move analysts said stirred anger by “eroding” the very principle that China has built its ties with the US on.

In an interview with Chinese media last week, China’s former top envoy to the US, Cui Tiankai, accused Washington of changing the “status quo” on Taiwan by strengthening military and diplomatic ties with the self-ruled island, moves Cui said undermine the one-China policy Washington supported when it normalised relations with China in the 1970s.

“The US’ attitude has changed,” Cui said, after it pledged its support to the one-China principle in the three joint communiques, which China considers the guiding documents for US-China relations and the US position on Taiwan.

“Today, the United States always says that it ‘opposes unilateral changes to the status quo’, implying that we are changing the status quo … [however] originally, the United States promised to only have economic, trade and cultural exchanges with Taiwan. But now it has military and official involvement. Doesn’t this change the status quo?

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“ The United States adds a lot of suffixes to its so-called one-China policy, eroding the policy little by little,” Cui said.

The three joint communiques were signed by Beijing and Washington between 1972 and 1982, when the US shifted official ties from the Republic of China government in Taiwan to officially recognise the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.

In the communiques, the US said it “acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China”. The word “acknowledges” is often argued as an example of the ambiguity of Washington’s one-China policy.

The US also agreed to gradually cut down weapons support to Taiwan – a pledge Beijing has said the US has failed to keep.

In 1979, the US passed the Taiwan Relations Act, which allowed Washington to sell weapons to Taiwan for self-defence purposes, and opposed any forceful attempts to resolve the Taiwan issue.

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Analysts said that while the US repeatedly said it supported the one-China policy, the ambiguity over terms in the guiding documents allows flexibility for Washington to manoeuvre its China and Taiwan policy.

And as its rivalry with China grows, the US is more likely to use such strategic ambiguity to deter Beijing’s actions in the Taiwan Strait.

“The declaration of [the US] one-China policy has not changed, but the attitude underlying the one-China policy has changed vastly in the past few years,” said Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre.

“[The Taiwan Relations Act] is a part of the US one-China policy … It’s just in the past, the US was more focused on reassuring China that Taiwan will not change the status quo unilaterally, but now the US is more focused on deterring China from changing that status quo unilaterally,” she said.

The Xiamen city skyline on the Chinese mainland is seen in August 2022 past anti-landing spikes placed along the coast of Lieyu islet on Taiwan’s Kinmen islands, which lie just 3.2 kms (two miles) from the mainland China coast. Photo: AFP

Last week, the US House China Committee conducted a war-game simulation of a possible scenario in the Taiwan Strait, and concluded that Washington must continue to arm the island to deter China.

The simulation was held a week after China completed a three-day military drill around the island in response to US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California.

Beijing viewed the meeting as a violation of what had been agreed to in the three communiques, while Washington said Tsai’s transit in the US was “unofficial” and did not run contrary to its one-China policy.

Li Fei, a Taiwan studies professor at Xiamen University, said the Biden administration’s approach to declarations on Taiwan usually “does not match” with their actions.

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“The United States verbally said it still follows the one-China policy and opposes Taiwan’s independence,” he said.

“But in actions … it’s like the comedy duos that it has long been practising: the US government said it supports ‘one China’, and the US Congress keeps eroding the one-China policy, just as [former House speaker Nancy] Pelosi visits Taiwan and McCarthy meets with Tsai Ing-wen.”

He added that the restrictions the US has put around its one-China policy, such as terms like “against taking Taiwan by force” or “unilateral change of the status quo” were excuses for the US to continue its arms sales to Taiwan.

In March, the US approved a new round of arms sales to Taiwan worth US$619 million, including missiles for its F-16 fleet amid large-scale Chinese air incursions in Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. Washington and Taipei are also in talks to stockpile weapons around the island.

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In recent years, US statements over Taiwan and the one-China policy have been criticised as inconsistent.

In 2003, when then pro-independence Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian said the island would hold a referendum the following year calling for Beijing to stop deploying missiles aimed at the island – a move widely seen as stirring pro-independence sentiment in Taiwan – former US president George W. Bush issued clear warnings not to alter the status quo.

US President Joe Biden, however, has said Taiwan is “independent” and could decide its own fate, and that the US would defend it if it were attacked by Beijing.

But during a meeting in Bali last year, he also reaffirmed to Chinese President Xi Jinping that he did not support Taiwan’s independence and did not intend to get involved in conflicts with China.

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While serving as the Pentagon’s spokesperson in 2021, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the country took no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and only wanted to preserve peace in the strait, while accusing Beijing of “intimidating” Taiwan with military activities in the East and South China Sea.

Lu Xiang, a US-China relations expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US had not provided a clear definition of what it means by “changes to the status quo” on Taiwan, but instead has leveraged the issue to serve its strategic interests.

“Since the Biden administration took office more than two years ago, they have indeed strengthened their intervention in the Taiwan Strait, not only rhetorically, but also in actions, including the recent military exercises in the northern part of the Philippines,” Lu said.

“The meaning of these military provocations is very clear. The United States is strengthening its [strategic] planning in the western Pacific region.”