WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration shouldn’t abandon long-standing U. S. policy on the status of Taiwan, a prominent panel of China specialists said Tuesday, calling such a move « exceedingly dangerous. »
Before taking office, President Donald Trump questioned Washington’s « one China policy » that shifted diplomatic recognition from self-governing Taiwan to China in 1979. He said it was open to negotiation.
But former U. S. officials and scholars said in a report that such an approach could destabilize the Asia-Pacific and leave Taiwan more vulnerable.
U. S.-China relations are at a « precarious crossroads » and the two world powers could be on a « collision course, » it said, describing a rivalry that is growing amid Beijing’s assertion of territorial claims in the disputed South and East China Seas.
The report is the product of an expert task force convened by the Asia Society and the University of California San Diego. It includes former officials who have served both Democratic and Republican administrations — two key Asia policymakers for the Obama administration among them: Kurt Campbell, who served as top diplomat for East Asia during Obama’s first term, and Evan Medeiros, who was White House senior director for Asian affairs.
