Pompeo calls restrictions on official contacts with Taiwan ‘null and void’, in swipe at Beijing
- Pompeo’s order allows US government to conduct official engagements with Taipei through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
- The non-profit AIT has traditionally played a low-key role to avoid disputes with Beijing
The US government will lift its internal restrictions on how American officials may interact with their Taiwanese government counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Saturday, the latest move by the outgoing Trump administration seeking to bolster Washington’s relationship with Taipei.
“Taiwan is a vibrant democracy and reliable partner of the United States, and yet for several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts,” Pompeo said in a statement.
“Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions,” he said, calling them “null and void”. He added that the US government had originally put them in place “in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing”.
One rule that may be changed: the State Department’s foreign service manual says that US government officials may not use their official passports when travelling “to, from, or through” Taiwan, because the US does not have official diplomatic relations with Taipei.
The State Department did not immediately respond to questions seeking to clarify how this rule change would affect US officials travelling to Taiwan, as senior Trump administration officials have already travelled to the self-ruled island in recent months, and another plans to travel there next week.
