Taiwan and the United States have resumed high-level dialogue which had been suspended over conflicting approaches to China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own, officials said on Tuesday. Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian upset the United States by provoking China with his pro-independence stance, but now formal US-Taiwan dialogue has reopened quietly under China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou since he took office in May.
"Talks between us and the United States will generally be closer," Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesman Henry Chen said. "...high-level exchanges have been going very well." China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to Taiwan.
China has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary, and warned against any formal declaration of independence. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognising "one China", but is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to help the island if it comes under attack. US officials, who have also grown close to Beijing in recent years following decades of distrust, have lauded Ma's efforts to make peace with China after chiding ex-president Chen for talking up Taiwan's formal independence.
A secretive high-level US visit late last year was aimed at restarting semi-annual talks and opening a "direct communication channel" to the US presidential administration, according to a China Times report cited on a Taiwan government website.
On Monday, Ma briefly met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a ceremony in El Salvador and touched on the island's ties with China, the Foreign Ministry said. Beijing may bristle privately but is unlikely to condemn the Taiwan-US exchanges, which could cover sensitive arms sales and sharing information about China's movements, analysts say.
"They won't object, as there's a lot more interdependence between China and the US now," said Raymond Wu, a political risk analyst based in Taipei. Taiwan looks to its 23 mostly small and cash-strapped allies in the Americas, Africa and the South Pacific for legitimacy in international organisations. China has about 170 allies, including the world's most powerful nations.