Taiwan asserts island’s sovereignty after US restates opposition to independence
- Kurt Campbell, the US Indo-Pacific coordinator, became the first Biden administration official to set out the White House’s stance on the issue
- The Taiwanese foreign ministry responded by saying the island is a sovereign state and wants to protect its democratic system
Taiwan’s foreign ministry stated on Wednesday that the self-ruled island is a sovereign state which seeks to maintain a stable relationship with mainland China and wants to safeguard its free and democratic system.
The statement follows comments by a senior Biden administration official on Tuesday.
“We support a strong unofficial relationship with Taiwan. We do not support Taiwan independence,” Kurt Campbell, the White House Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, said in response to the question “how much love is too much?” when it came to stronger US ties with Taiwan.
The comment, at an event hosted by the Asia Society, was the first public statement on the issue by an official from the Biden administration.
It was also Campbell’s first public comment on the Taiwan issue since Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed last week at the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebrations to crush any attempt to block the “reunification” of Taiwan with the mainland, which sees the island as part of its territory.
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Xi Jinping leads celebrations marking centenary of China’s ruling Communist Party
The United States has never supported Taiwanese independence since it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
