I must say I thought it was unusual for the President to say he had abandoned a stance against the "One China Policy" which keeps Taiwan out of the United Nations and China in the South China Sea, claiming everything in sight. It was a good idea to hold out this policy as one that needed to be negotiated since there is very little to be said for allowing China to profess world agreement that there can only be one China in the world. It basically means Taiwan will fall to China sooner than later.
The second fiction that China perpetuates is the 1992 Consensus on Taiwan. You can read J. Michael Cole's analysis of this and decide for yourselves but he says the U.S did not agree with the consensus and is neutral on this link between Taiwan and the One China Policy. China says the U.S has agreed to the consensus; the U.S says it has not and is neutral on the subject. Like the 1992 Consensus, both China and Taiwan agree to disagree about what was discussed at the meetings that produced it. China quotes it often as the "agreed upon" position of most foreign governments, yet there is no support for that. That does not keep them from the steady drum beat to the contrary.
As China strangles Taiwan with the build-up in the South China Sea, it apparent we are doing nothing about either Taiwan or the militarization of the Sea. That policy has allowed China to add military hardware, additional controls, and more submarines to the area. One day we will see Taiwan as another Hong Kong, which has not worked out very well as a "two system" jurisdiction. Taiwan rejects this idea for good reason. We kind of got the message when the mainland Chinese kidnapped Hong Kong booksellers and took them to the mainland for trial. Two systems indeed.
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