Creating a flashpoint for war-
US provocatively lifts restrictions on contact with Taiwan
The Biden administration announced last Friday that it was significantly easing restrictions on contact between US and Taiwanese officials, effectively tearing up protocols in place since the US and China established formal diplomatic relations in 1979. The move is a major step in undermining the “One China” policy—accepted at the time by the US—that effectively recognised Beijing as the legitimate government of all China including Taiwan.
The announcement makes clear that the Biden administration intends to intensify the aggressive US confrontation with China on all fronts—diplomatic, economic and military—that began with the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia, and was stepped up under Trump.
The Biden administration is justifying its closer ties with Taiwan by ramping up allegations of “Chinese aggression” and unsubstantiated claims that Beijing is actively considering a military invasion of Taiwan. Beijing regards Taiwan as a “renegade province” that it is seeking to reunite with peacefully, but has repeatedly warned that it will respond militarily to any unilateral declaration of independence by Taipei.
Blinken declared that “what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits.” He warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force.
In reality, the US is in the process of upending the status quo, by calling into question the basis of US-China relations that have maintained a fragile peace in the Taiwan Strait for the past 40 years. Washington is now strengthening relations with Taiwan—which it acknowledged is part of China—and ignoring Chinese objections. The allegations of “Chinese aggression” are being cynically used to justify greater US collaboration with Taiwan—moves that are designed to provoke a response from China.
Far from lowering the dangers of a war with Taiwan over China, closer military cooperation between the US and Taiwan only heightens tensions and the risks of conflict. That is exactly what the Pentagon is preparing for as its pushes for a huge increase in military spending in the Indo-Pacific in preparation for war against China, including the stationing of offensive intermediate range missiles on the “first island chain” around China, which includes Japan, the Philippines and notably, Taiwan.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/12/taiw-a12.html
