China accused the United States on Monday of a “serious regression” in its position on Taiwan, after the State Department updated the Taiwan section of its website to remove a reference to the independence of the Beijing-claimed island.
The State Department fact sheet on U.S.-Taiwan relations continues to state Washington’s opposition to any unilateral changes to the status quo from either China or Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy that rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. But the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” appears to have been removed on Thursday in what the State Department says was a routine update.
The change was cheered by Taiwan, while China said it “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence forces” and urged the U.S. to “immediately correct this mistake.”
The U.S. should “stop using Taiwan to control China” and “stop condoning and supporting Taiwan independence,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Monday. “This will help avoid further serious damage to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
The same phrase about not supporting Taiwan independence was removed from the State Department fact sheet in 2022 during the Biden administration before being restored a few weeks later.
The United States, like most countries, does not have official relations with Taiwan but is its most important international backer, and is required by law to provide the island of 23 million people with defensive weapons.
Beijing, which has not ruled out the use of force to assert its sovereignty claims, is extremely sensitive to any sign of international recognition of Taiwan, which it describes as its “core of core interests.”
Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, says it is already an independent country. Its government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communist forces of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China.
The U.S. has recognized the PRC as the sole legal government of China since establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, acknowledging Beijing’s assertion that Taiwan is part of China but taking no official stance of its own on the sovereignty of Taiwan.
The State Department said the U.S. position on Taiwan independence had not changed and that the U.S. remained committed to its “one China” policy.
“The United States is committed to preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email on Sunday.
