Joe Biden sends unofficial delegation to Taiwan in ‘personal signal’
- Ex-senator Chris Dodd and ex-deputy secretaries of state Richard Armitage and James Steinberg, who are ‘personally close’ to the president, have been selected
- The US has announced new guidelines on Taiwan amid stepped-up Chinese military activity around the island
A senior Biden administration official said the dispatch of the “unofficial” delegation comes as the United States and Taiwan mark the 42nd anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, for which Biden voted when he was a US senator.
The delegation will meet senior Taiwanese officials and followed “a long-standing bipartisan tradition of US administrations sending high-level, unofficial delegations to Taiwan”, the official said.
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The official called it “a personal signal” from the president, who took office in January.
“The selection of these three individuals – senior statesmen who are long-time friends of Taiwan and personally close with President Biden – sends an important signal about the US commitment to Taiwan and its democracy.”
The State Department said on Friday it was issuing new guidelines to enable US officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, a move that deepens relations with Taipei amid stepped-up Chinese military activity around the island, which China claims as its own.
Former president Donald Trump angered China by sending several senior officials to Taiwan, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced days before the Trump presidency ended in January that he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts.