US Secretary of State Rubio's stance towards Taiwan not new

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OPINION

By Joshua Kingdom

In showing public support for Taiwan during his recent visit to Guatemala contrary to a promise made to Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this month, United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, played a card that is now but too common i.e. US officials saying one thing in private and doing another when the cameras are on in regards to this question– declassified 1982 communications thus show President Reagan’s team secretly undermining the 3^rd joint communiqué on the island almost the instant that it was signed.

To understand the motivation behind conduct like this, we can take to the aid of history and what we quickly find, is that the US was never on board with the idea of a Taiwan that is subordinate to mainland China to begin with. It is just that the international consensus strongly sided with Beijing such that America could not do anything about it. Additionally, Dr Henry Kissinger who was Washington’s chief diplomat at the time recognized that having China’s back was key for both the prevailing Cold war as well as future business given her rising economy.

As USA’s perception of China changed overtime from trading partner to what most hawkish politicians at Capitol Hill now call a threat, the country’s masked Taipei sentiments inevitably came to the fore. That is not the worst part though (I mean, countries do not always agree) but rather the fact that the United States is willing to act on the same in direct violation of international law.

With the passing of Resolution 2758 by the United Nations General Assembly, supporting Taipei secessionist forces is outright illegal. This instrument did not only revoke the membership of the “Republic of China” to the United Nations and sister organizations replacing it with the People’s Republic of China, but also obliged all countries party to the UN Charter, among them the US, to only recognize the latter government in their diplomatic missions (a declaration that has come to be known as the One-China principle).

Indeed, as the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, Zhu Fenglian, recently pointed out, as many as 183 nations have gone on to implement the said principle. Moreover, One-China is not a ghost that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is trying to awaken. The United Nations Secretary General has expressed support for it as recently as 2022. Leaders of more than 170 of the 183 countries mentioned earlier reaffirmed their commitment to this way of doing things too not long ago.

A specific recurring way in which the United States of America has put itself first despite the stipulations of legal norms is passing domestic laws that rescind her duties to China under the global order. Take the case of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act which effectively kneecapped all progress that President Jimmy Carter had made with the 2^nd joint communiqué. Behaviour like this contravenes the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Any country going against this should be condemned and called to order!

Amazingly, China does not demand that Washington cut all ties with Taiwan. According to the communiqués, the two can still connect through trade and cultural initiatives, to mention but a few of the exemption clauses. Insisting on having her way is, therefore, a wanton disregard for the rule of law by the USA, as it is bullish there, serving to undermine a major pillar of international relations: comradely.

“Why should Mr Rubio care now (after the US has gotten away with all these misgivings)?” you might ask. Well, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, China is far different from what it was during Nixon’s time. As it stands, the country is among USA’s top three trading partners as well as lenders.

It would also serve Sino-USA relations well if President Trump’s administration took a path of de-escalation for its Taiwan policy given that this deludes the separatists in Taipei.

But assuming that all this analysis misreads the moment and that Marco Rubio actually has no intention of antagonizing China’s handling of her internal affairs, especially the issue of its inalienable Island - Taiwan, he still ought to conduct himself more responsibly. Surely, he above all people knows that remarks like his most recent will play in the hands of forces opposed to the Chinese establishment, rule-based world order and more importantly, international laws!

There is also the argument that the Secretary of State’s style is reducible to advancing his nation’s best interests, in which case he should think twice before provoking a power with China’s military capabilities into war. We saw hints of this when, in 2022, then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to provoke Beijing and traveled to Taipei in a show of what she called solidarity with the government there. China did not hesitate to carry out retaliatory drills.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre