The U.S. Department of State has removed the line "We do not support Taiwan independence" from its website describing U.S.-Taiwan relations, setting off a flurry of speculation. TaiwanPlus speaks to Ross Feingold, a Taipei-based political analyst and former Asia chair of Republicans Abroad.
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00:00The United States has sent a signal that its position on Taiwan and its sovereignty may
00:05be shifting with an update to the text of the Taiwan section on the State Department
00:10website, deleting the line, we do not support Taiwan independence.
00:15The change comes less than a month into President Donald Trump's new term.
00:19Luis Watt is following this story for us and joins us from our newsroom in Taipei.
00:24Luis, how significant are these changes?
00:30Well, that's the big question.
00:32The U.S. says these are simply part of routine updates.
00:37Taiwan, for its part, has expressed gratitude for what it calls positive Taiwan-friendly
00:43wordings, and China has slammed the changes, calling on the U.S.
00:49to, in its words, immediately correct its mistakes.
00:53Let's take a look first at the changes.
00:55The U.S. State Department website used to say, we oppose any unilateral changes to the
01:01status quo from either side.
01:03We do not support Taiwan independence and we expect cross-strait differences to be
01:08resolved by peaceful means.
01:10Well, now that phrase, we do not support Taiwan independence, has gone and they now
01:15expect that differences between Taiwan and China will be resolved by peaceful means,
01:21but also free from coercion and in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of
01:27the strait.
01:29Now, China claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
01:33Taiwan says it's its own sovereign country.
01:36The U.S. has a longstanding policy not to take sides, not to take a view on who has
01:43sovereignty over Taiwan.
01:45If we think back to President Biden's administration, President Biden showed support
01:51for Taiwan. He even said several times that the U.S.
01:55would come to Taiwan's aid in the event of a Chinese attack.
02:00Well, during his administration, that line was still in there, although it was briefly
02:05removed in 2022 and then put back in after protests from China.
02:12Well, I've been talking today to a political analyst who's based in Taipei, Ross
02:17Feingold.
02:18He also is a former Asia chair of the political organization Republicans Abroad.
02:24Now, he says this change has to have come from the top of the U.S.
02:29State Department, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who's known to be a China hawk.
02:35And Ross Feingold says that he doubts that Rubio would bow to any pressure from Beijing
02:44to put that line back in there.
02:47Now, we're going to hear a little more from Ross now.
02:50I started by asking him, taking out the line, we do not support Taiwan independence.
02:57Does this mean the U.S.
02:59does now support Taiwan independence?
03:02They've removed this one line that we do not support.
03:06Does it mean they oppose?
03:07Does it mean they don't oppose?
03:09It's anyone's guess.
03:10I think the key thing here is the reference to the status quo and the government under
03:16President Trump, U.S.
03:17government opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo.
03:21How should we take these changes?
03:24What should we read into them as far as the Trump administration's support for Taiwan?
03:30I think there might be some tension, we could call it, between the president and his
03:35national security defense foreign policy team.
03:39On the one hand, President Trump is reluctant to get involved in overseas wars.
03:43He's made that very clear.
03:45And in the U.S.-China relationship, the one issue that is most important that President
03:51Trump cares the most about is the trade issue.
03:54And some of these other issues, whether it's Taiwan or Hong Kong or Xinjiang or Tibet,
04:00I think President Trump is going to defer to his team.
04:03And the interesting thing is his team wants to show political support for these other
04:07issues.
04:08So, again, whether it's Secretary Rubio or Defense Secretary Hegseth or National Security
04:16Advisor Walz, I think they're going to be very eager to take on the full agenda of U.S.-
04:21China issues.
04:22And that includes showing political support for Taiwan or for dissidents from the other
04:28regions of China.
04:29I think President Trump is just going to defer to his team, which actually gives the team
04:33a wide open space to make such gestures towards Taiwan or to take action on some of the
04:38other issues in the U.S.-China relationship.