In the autumn, the US government wants to start the first negotiations with Taiwan. The topics are already defined. Relations between the two countries and China are threatened to deteriorate.
Despite the tense situation in the South China Sea, the governments of Taiwan and the United States have announced that they want to deepen their relationship. Trade negotiations will officially start in “early autumn” and will include topics such as agriculture, digital trade, market regulation and the removal of trade barriers.
This was announced by the Office of the US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai. Although the principle of these discussions was already announced on June 1, they officially start with the declaration of the planned topics and an approximate date for autumn.
This announcement comes just two weeks after Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives is number three in American politics after the president and vice president.
Her trip to Taipei was therefore the highest-level US state visit to Taiwan in a quarter of a century and was called a provocation by China. Beijing’s leaders responded by staging the largest military exercises in Chinese history in waters off Taiwan.
China opposes any formal agreement with Taiwan.
Official contacts from other countries with Taipei are in principle rejected by China. Since the preliminary trade negotiations between Taiwan and the United States began, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it known that it opposes any agreement of a formal nature that would have consequences on China’s sovereignty.
Since the split between China and Taiwan in 1949, Beijing has considered the island a breakaway territory that it wants to reunify with the mainland, if necessary by military force.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has raised fears that Beijing will adopt a similar approach in its relations with Taiwan.