Taiwan expressed thanks and China was upset on Wednesday after Donald Trump signed into law legislation requiring the U.S. State Department to regularly review and update guidelines on how the United States officially interacts with Taipei.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, and the issue is a constant source of irritation in Sino-U.S. relations given Beijing views the democratically-governed island as its own.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung told reporters more frequent reviews of the guidelines would allow Taiwanese officials into federal agencies for meetings, for example, though the legislation does not make explicit mention of this.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China firmly opposes any form of official contact between the United States and “the Taiwan region of China”.
So a country halfway across the world supporting your “freedom” because they benefit from the manufacturing the country outputs is freedom. But a country that is your neighbor, like China, that has literally never invaded you and has normalized relations with you is “a threat”. The Allie is a country that literally just abandoned an allie in Ukraine when it became unprofitable to support them.
How many times does the US need to abandon an allie like this for people to understand that being an Allie of the US is not beneficial to the “freedom” of that state.
Russia invading Ukraine is unjustifiable. IF China invaded Taiwan it would also be unjustifiable. But, do you really think the US policy of “fighting to the last Ukrainian” and then abandoning them was good for Ukraine?
There is no benefit that comes from being an Allie of the US. If Taiwan wants to remain out of conflicts it’s best option is to distance itself from the US. The benefits only exist until the US decides it’s no longer as profitable to their weapons manufacturers. Then shift their focus to somewhere else (Venezuela for example).
I am sure that China would invade Taiwan if it had the chance. China is the one country that uses its power to isolate Taiwan internationally wherever possible, claiming that Taiwan belongs inside its borders. Therefore, the USA guaranteeing Taiwan’s independence is helping Taiwan. I’m not saying that the U.S. is acting altruistically, and I definitely don’t think Trump is acting altruistically or morally, but the result in Taiwan has been the right one. Though, I am not convinced that Trump wouldn’t sell Taiwan to China at some point.
I also don’t know why you put “freedom” in quotation marks. Taiwan has a functioning democracy with a free press, the right to demonstrate,… It’s at least on par with Europe freedomwise. If China were to invade Taiwan, that would be lost.