US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on August 2, 2022, a highly controversial trip that has been strongly opposed by China.
Such is the sensitivity about the island’s status that, even before Pelosi’s plane landed in the capital of Taipei, mere reports of the proposed trip prompted a warning from China of “serious consequences.” In the hours before he set foot on the island, Chinese warplanes flew close to the dividing line separating Taiwan from China, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi commented that US politicians who “play with fire” in Taiwan “would not have a good end.
For its part, the United States has distanced itself from the visit. Before the trip, President Joe Biden said it was “not a good idea.”
As someone who has long studied the delicate diplomatic dance of the United States on Taiwan, I understand why this trip has provoked reactions in both Washington and Beijing, given the current tensions in the region. Furthermore, he marks the continuation of a process that has seen US political engagement with Taiwan grow, much to China’s annoyance.
The controversy over Pelosi’s visit stems from the “one China” policy, the diplomatic stance in which the United States recognizes China and acknowledges Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China. This policy has governed US relations with Taiwan for the past 40 years.
In 1979, the United States abandoned its earlier policy of recognizing Taiwan’s government as that of all of China, in favor of recognizing the government of the mainland.
As part of this change, the United States severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and the US embassy in Taiwan was replaced by a non-governmental entity called the American Institute in Taiwan.
The institute was a de facto embassy – although until 2002, Americans assigned to the institute had to resign from the US State Department to go there, only to be rehired once their term was up. And the contact between the two governments was technically unofficial.
As the Taiwanese government moved toward democracy – from the lifting of martial law in 1987 to the holding of the first fully democratic elections in 1996 – it moved away from the assumptions previously held by the governments of both China and of Taiwan from eventual reunification with the mainland. The Chinese government, however, has never abandoned the “one China” idea and rejects the legitimacy of Taiwanese self-government. This has made direct contact between Taiwanese and US representatives contentious for Chinese officials.
In fact, in 1995, when Lee Teng-hui, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president, landed in Hawaii on his way to Central America, he didn’t even set foot on the tarmac. The US State Department had already warned that he would be denied an entry visa to the United States, but had allowed a brief low-level reception in the airport lounge during refueling. Apparently, Lee felt slighted and refused to leave the plane.
