The US State Department removed previous wording on its website about not supporting Taiwan independence. The updated fact sheet on Taiwan, updated last week, retains Washington’s opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China. But as well as dropping the phrase \”we do not support Taiwan independence\”, the page added a reference to Taiwan’s cooperation with a Pentagon technology and semiconductor development project. Beijing regularly denounces any international recognition of Taiwan or contact between Taiwanese and foreign officials. The update to the website came roughly three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term in the White House. The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan but is its strongest international backer, bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. But Taiwan says it is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name. The Republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, who set up the People’sRepublic of China.
