Trump’s China battles give boost to Taiwan supporters

Bloomberg

Escalating tensions between the US and China over trade, the South China Sea and recent arms sales are pushing Taiwan back into the American foreign policy spotlight, attracting Beijing’s ire.
After a precedent-shattering phone call with Trump when he was president-elect, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has found a more receptive audience in the US during the recent disputes. She’s been aided in that by the presence of long-standing allies in the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon, including National Security Adviser John Bolton.
“The Republic of China has more high-level friends in this administration than it’s had for many, many years,” said Nic-holas Eberstadt, who focusses on Asian security issues at the American Enterprise Institute, referring to Taiwan by its official name. “It’s also apparent that the administration has an approach that is going to contest China on many different fronts.”
While it’s not clear how far the Trump administration is willing to boost Taiwan, it is seen as an increasingly valuable point of leverage over Beijing, which considers the island’s fate a “core interest” —more important than nearly any other issue. A faction in Bolton’s National Security Council is seeking a more aggressive posture, including by sending more warships through the Taiwan Strait, while Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have advocated proceeding with caution, according to one current and one former administration official.
An NSC spokesperson said the president didn’t need to give further authorisation for the US Navy to sail or operate wherever international law allows.
Decades have passed since the fate of Taiwan was considered so important that it featured in the 1960 US presidential debate. The US broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and officially recognized the Communist government in Beijing in 1979. But the brewing confrontations over trade and security have created a new opportunity for the island to push back against China’s bid to steadily erode its influence overseas.
Taiwan’s importance to Beijing was why Trump set off a shock wave in China when, as president-elect, he took a call from Tsai. The move raised questions about America’s continuing commitment to the “one-China” policy, which underpinned the restoration of ties between the two powers.
The move prompted then-President Barack Obama to offer a rare rebuke of the president-elect. “If you’re going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are,” Obama said at the time.
Arms Sales
While Trump has since affirmed US support for “one China,” his administration has followed its predecessors and gone ahead with weapons sales to Taiwan and made clear that the island’s fate will feature in a broader realignment toward greater confrontation with leaders in Beijing. In an October 4 speech, Vice President Mike Pence assailed China for a series of moves chipping away at Taiwan’s diplomatic presence overseas and its ramping up of pressure on private companies to refer to Taiwan as a province of China rather than what he called a “distinct geographic entity.”
“America will always believe Taiwan’s embrace of democracy shows a better path for all the Chinese people,” Pence said.
The speech followed sharp condemnation from the US after China persuaded three Latin American and Caribbean countries to switch their allegiances and declare diplomatic ties with China, rather than Taiwan.