BEIJING (AP) – Chinese state media lashed out at the latest attack on Taiwan by the outgoing Trump administration, accusing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “maliciously inflicting a long-lasting scar on the ties between China and the United States. USA “.
A writer for the official Xinhua News Agency also said in a comment on Sunday that the lifting of long-term restrictions on the US government’s contacts with Taiwanese counterparts proves that Pompeo is “only interested in fueling groundless confrontations and has no interest in world peace.”
Another comment posted online by CGTN, the English-language broadcaster of state broadcaster CCTV, called Pompeo’s announcement “a cowardly act of sabotage” by the next US administration.
“The Trump administration, in its ongoing efforts to set the house on fire before leaving office, has crossed a dangerous red line with China days before president-to-be Joe Biden took office,” the comment read in part.
Biden will take up his duties on January 20.
There was no immediate response from the Chinese government to Pompeo’s decision to end the State Department’s restrictions on how US officials can communicate with Taiwan, which he said was implemented to help the communist regime in Beijing.
“Not anymore,” Pompeo said in a statement Saturday. “Today I announce that I am lifting all these self-imposed restrictions.”
Taiwan is a sensitive issue for the ruling Communist Party of China, which views the self-governing island of 23.6 million people as an apostate province to be brought under its rule.
Under the One China Policy, the US recognizes Beijing as the government of China and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan. However, it maintains unofficial contacts, including a de facto embassy in Taipei, the capital, and supplies military equipment for the island’s defense.
Taiwan leaders welcomed Pompeo’s announcement.
“We express our gratitude to the US for speaking out and supporting Taiwan,” Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang told reporters. “We also hope to actively get in touch with each other, so that Taiwan can get an even bigger place in international society.”
He and Secretary of State Joseph Wu, thanking Pompeo on Twitter, emphasized the values of freedom and democracy shared by Taiwan and the US – as opposed to China’s authoritarian one-party state.
Pompeo’s announcement came two days after he said he would be sending Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the United Nations, to Taiwan for meetings this week. She will arrive on Wednesday.
Craft’s journey follows the journey of Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services in August, the first cabinet member to visit Taiwan since 2014, and another by Secretary of State Keith Krach in September.
China, which is opposed to having its own foreign relations between Taiwan, has sharply criticized all this interaction. It stepped up air patrols off the coast of Taiwan last year and used its diplomatic power to prevent Taiwan from participating in international forums, such as the World Health Organization annual meeting.
Hu Xijin, the editor of the Chinese state newspaper Global Times, tweeted that if Pompeo’s announcement is the new starting point for US Taiwan policy, it will also be the start of the countdown to the Taiwan government’s survival.
“(China’s) fighter jets can fly over Taiwan Island at any time,” he tweeted. “The option to use military means to resolve (the) Taiwan issue will also be on the table.”
Pompeo said the US maintains relationships with unofficial partners around the world, and Taiwan is no exception.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.