NEW DELHI: “Definitely expect some form of Chinese military aggression to try and strike fear into Taiwanese society and remind the government they have not given up the option of using the military to force reunification,” says William Yang, a correspondent for several international media groups in Taiwan. Yang said the Taiwanese government has “expressed gratefulness in a rapid response” to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifting restrictions on contacts between American and Taiwanese officials in what is “the latest edition of many breakthroughs in the relationship between Taipei and Washington.
On January 9, Pompeo, in a statement said, “the United States government had taken these actions unilaterally in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing. Today I am announcing that I am lifting all of these self-imposed restrictions.” On the timing of the decision, ten days before President-elect Biden takes over, Yang said: “Even when the Biden administration comes in, because of bipartisan consensus, Taiwan is definitely going to have a role in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. That’s simply because of its strategic position, where it’s located in between China and the Pacific. If they lost Taiwan, there will be a very serious loophole when it comes to China’s access to the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan probably occupies the most important position along the first island chain.”
India-Taiwan relations have “obviously changed” in the last year, the Vice President of Taiwan’s Foreign correspondents’ Club told StratNews Global Associate Editor, Amitabh P. Revi, adding, “it’s not going to be a surprise if see a lot more official-level interaction between India and Taiwan. In the future, the China factor is definitely the biggest key for sparking more strengthened and frequent engagements between the two countries.”
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