Michael Hernandez
May 10, 2022•Update: May 10, 2022
WASHINGTON
The US State Department sought to downplay on Tuesday changes to its website's section on Taiwan amid uproar from China.
State Department spokesman Ned Price emphasized in remarks to reporters that the revisions do not reflect a change to US policy, maintaining "we operate under the auspices of our one China policy."
"We regularly do updates on our fact sheets. Our fact sheets reflect, in the case of Taiwan, our rock-solid unofficial relationship with Taiwan," spokesman Ned Price told reporters. "And we call upon the PRC to behave responsibly and to not manufacture pretenses to increase pressure on Taiwan."
Price was referring to China, who reacted harshly against the revisions, saying they are a form of "political manipulation".
"The US' latest modification of the fact sheet is a trick to obscure and write off the One China principle," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. "Such political manipulation of the Taiwan question and the attempt to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait will hurt the US itself."
The State Department last week updated its "Fact Sheet" on Taiwan to remove wording from the former Trump administration that the US "does not support Taiwan independence," and "opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by either side."
They were replaced with language referring to the "longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances." Those documents and principles have guided US policy on China and Taiwan for decades.
The "Fact Sheet" adds that the US "continues to encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait differences consistent with the wishes and best interests of the people on Taiwan."
Asked why the revisions were made given the extreme sensitivities surrounding US policy on Taiwan, Price said "the fact sheet had not been updated in several years."
"I think we care most about ensuring that our relationships around the world are reflected accurately in our fact sheets. I don't think we're as concerned as to what other countries might latch on to in an effort to create a pretense," he said.
China considers Taiwan a “breakaway province,” and its objections have led to Taipei’s exclusion from various international organizations over the years.
Taipei, however, has maintained its independence since 1949, and currently has at least 14 full diplomatic allies.
Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have escalated since October when China celebrated its founding anniversary, and in the days that followed numerous Chinese warplanes flew into its ADIZ - a buffer zone outside a country’s airspace where it has the right to ask incoming aircraft to identify themselves.
