The US is preparing to open a new de facto embassy in Taiwan, with speculation over who will represent Washington at the ceremony almost certain to enrage China.
The renovated American Institute in Taiwan will open on 12 June, and is likely to be overshadowed by a possible summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore. But the potential for senior US officials, possibly at the cabinet level, attending the ceremony for the $250m facility has raised eyebrows in Beijing.
The new compound represents a significant upgrade in US relations with Taiwan, and the opening ceremony comes at a time when Beijing has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward the democratic self-ruled island of 23 million people.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province, despite never having fallen under Communist control, and Beijing has not ruled out using force to unify Taiwan with the mainland. President Xi Jinping has sought to isolate Taiwan on the international stage after elections in 2016, blocking its participation in international bodies such as the World Health Organization and poaching diplomatic allies.
“This new, not inexpensive building signifies a strong and enduring American commitment to the island and its people,” Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, wrote recently.
The Trump administration should “seize opportunities to signal its opposition to China’s punitive tactics”, Bush wrote. “Sending a senior US official is one of those opportunities.”
But the ceremony comes at a complicated time for US foreign policy. While Trump is taking an aggressive stance toward China on trade, he ultimately needs Beijing’s cooperation for any lasting deal to denuclearise North Korea.
Under the “One China” policy, the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, but maintains informal relations with Taipei and is required under by law to help provide for the island’s defence. The US regularly sells weapons to Taiwan worth billions of dollars, which elicits diplomatic protests from Beijing. Trump broke with decades of diplomatic protocol when he spoke directly to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, shortly after winning the election.
He also signed a law that encouraged high-level delegations from Washington to travel to Taiwan, while also inviting senior politicians from the island to travel to the US.
The American Institute is not officially an embassy, but a non-profit established by the US government to represent its interest and is staffed mainly by US diplomats.