A strange thing happened during President Biden's "Summit for Democracy" last week: Video of Audrey Tang, Taiwan's digital minister, was abruptly cut off during a panel discussion and replaced with an audio-only feed after she presented a map that displayed Taiwan as a different color than China, which considers the island part of its territory. American and Taiwanese officials blamed technical issues, but sources tell Reuters that White House officials had the video feed cut because they were worried showing Taiwan as a distinct country would anger Beijing.
As Tang spoke, a message on the screen said, "Any opinions expressed by individuals on this panel are those of the individual, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States government." The US has a policy of "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan and does not take an official position on whether the island, which has been self-governing since 1949, is part of China, the Hill reports. In a meeting with Biden last month, Xi Jinping warned that interfering on what China considers to be an internal issue would be "playing with fire."
The color-coded map in question had been released days earlier by South African NGO CIVICUS. It ranked countries by the level of restrictions on human rights. China was red, or "closed," while Taiwan was the only green, or "open," spot in Asia. A source tells Reuters that cutting the video was "completely an internal overreaction" from the White House. A Taiwanese foreign ministry spokesperson says the two sides "have fully communicated on this technical issue, and the two sides have a solid mutual trust and a solid and friendly relationship." (More Taiwan stories.)
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