The curious case of a map and a disappearing Taiwan minister at U.S. democracy summit

In this April 9, 2021 illustration, Chinese and Taiwanese flags are displayed next to a military aircraft. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration / File Photo

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (Reuters) – During U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit last week, a video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut after a map on its slide show showed Taiwan in a different color than China, which the island is to itself claimed.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Taiwan digital minister Audrey Tang’s slide show caused consternation among US officials on Friday after the card appeared on her video feed for about a minute.

The sources, unwilling to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the video feed showing Tang was cut and only replaced with audio during an ongoing panel discussion – at the behest of the White House.

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The White House feared that the distinction between Taiwan and China on a map at a US-hosted conference – to which Taiwan was invited as a sign of support at a time when it was under heavy pressure from Beijing – was viewed as a contradiction in terms could be with Washington’s “one-China” policies avoiding taking a position on whether Taiwan is part of China, the sources said.

The White House made no formal comment, but the State Department said “confusion” about screen sharing resulted in Tang’s video feed being deleted, calling it “an honest mistake”.

“We appreciated the attendance of Minister Tang, who demonstrated Taiwan’s world-class expertise in issues of transparent governance, human rights and the fight against disinformation,” said a spokesman.

Tang’s presentation included a color-coded map from the South African NGO CIVICUS, which ranks the world according to openness to civil rights.

Most of Asia was shown, with Taiwan colored green, making it the only regional entity portrayed as “open” while all others, including several US allies and partners, were shown as “closed”, “oppressed”, “handicapped” were designated. or “narrowed”.

China, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea were colored red and marked as “closed”.

When the presenter returned to Tang a few minutes later, there was no video of her, only audio and a screenshot entitled, “Minister Audrey Tang Taiwan”. An on-screen disclaimer later stated, “All views expressed by individuals on this panel are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US government.”

A source told Reuters that the card sparked an immediate email riot among US officials and the White House National Security Council angrily contacted the State Department because it appeared concerned about making Taiwan a separate country.

Washington complained to the Taiwan government, which was upset that Tang’s video had been cut.

The source called the US movement an overreaction in that the map wasn’t inherently about national borders, but the NSC was also upset that the slide didn’t appear in “dry-running” versions of the presentation prior to the summit, which Questioned whether there was deliberate news from Tang and Taiwan.

“You choked,” the source said of the White House’s response.

A second source directly involved in the summit said the operator of the video booth had acted according to White House instructions. “It was clearly a political concern,” the source said, adding, “It was an entirely internal overreaction.”

The sources saw the move during a panel on “combating digital authoritarianism” at odds with the summit’s mission to strengthen democracy in the face of challenges from China and others. They also said that this could be a sign that the government’s support for Taiwan has not been as “rock solid” as it has been repeatedly claimed.

When asked if she believed the US government cut the video because of the slide, Tang told Reuters in an email: “No, I don’t think that’s anything to do with the CIVICUS card in my slides or the ones US allies in Asia to do this matter. “

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry blamed “technical problems” for this.

The issue comes at a highly sensitive time in US-Taiwan relations with some Biden government critics and foreign policy experts calling for more overt support for the island, including an end to a longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” as if the United States were to do so would defend it militarily.

Taiwan experts said they did not see the color-coding of the map as a violation of unofficial US guidelines prohibiting the use of overt symbols of sovereignty such as the Taiwanese flag.

“It was clearly not about distinguishing sovereignty, but about the degree of democratic expression,” said Douglas Paal, a former unofficial US ambassador to Taiwan.

According to US government guidelines from 2020 onwards, US government cards showing sovereignty by color must show Taiwan in the same color as China, although exceptions may be made “if the context requires Taiwan to be specially highlighted.”

Bonnie Glaser of the United States’ German Marshall Fund said the guidelines would not apply to a non-US government card, “but the US would likely avoid making the appearance that Taiwan is not part of China.”

“It seems to me that it was decided from the start that Taiwan could / should be included in the summit for democracy, but only in a way that is compatible with US policy.”

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Additional coverage from Simon Lewis in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/curious-case-map-disappearing-taiwan-minister-us-democracy-summit-2021-12-12/