A video of Taiwan minister Audrey Tang's presentation at the ‘Summit for Democracy’ hosted by US President Joe Biden on Friday was reportedly cut short after a map in one of the slides showed Taiwan and China in different colours.
The controversial map was shown in the video for about a minute before it was removed by White House officials over diplomatic concerns.
The video was then replaced with an audio-only feed. The White House also issued a disclaimer later on the screen that read, "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."
Quoting sources, Reuters reported that the White House was concerned that differentiating Taiwan and China on a map in a US-hosted conference could be seen as being at odds with Washington's "one-China" policy. Taiwan was invited to the summit in a show of support at a time when it is under intense pressure from Beijing.
Tang in her presentation had included a color-coded map from South African NGO CIVICUS which ranked the world by openness on civil rights.
While Taiwan was shown in green (open), most of the Asian countries were labelled as "closed," "repressed," "obstructed" or "narrowed”.
A few media reports claimed that the White House National Security Council (NSC) was angry that the slide with the controversial map had not appeared during the 'dry run' version before the summit. This has raised question that whether it was an intentional move by the Taiwan government.
The US state department, however, asserted that the removal of the video was an “honest mistake”. “We valued minister Tang’s participation, which showcased Taiwan’s world-class expertise on issues of transparent governance, human rights and countering disinformation,” a state department spokesperson said.
According to a Guardian report, the way the administration handled the alleged incident highlighted Biden’s balancing act in dealing with Taiwan. “While helping the democratically run island expand its international space, Washington does not wish to be seen as breaking its decades-long policy of 'strategic ambiguity' when dealing with Taiwan,” it said.
