A prime US diplomat’s upcoming journey to Taiwan as Washington ends decades-old curbs on contacts with Taipei has once more escalated Sino-American tensions.

Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the UN, is because of arrive in Taipei on Wednesday for a three-day go to.

Her last-minute journey – days earlier than Donald Trump’s presidency ends – has incensed China.

Self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its personal territory, has hailed the shift in diplomatic relations.

Ambassador Craft’s go to comes after a yr of mounting hostility between Washington and Beijing.

The democratic island of Taiwan has been a serious thorn within the deteriorating relationship. Beneath President Trump the US has established nearer ties with Taipei – ramping up arms gross sales and sending senior officers to the territory regardless of fierce warnings from China.

Most not too long ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned the US would finish the “self-imposed restrictions” on contacts between US and Taiwan officers that had been launched a long time in the past to “appease” the mainland Chinese language authorities, which lays declare to the island.

On the similar time the US has bitterly clashed with Beijing on a number of fronts together with commerce, human rights and the coronavirus pandemic.

The high-profile go to was solely introduced late final week by Mr Pompeo.

On the finish of a press release condemning the mass arrests of democracy advocates in Hong Kong, he additionally added that Ambassador Craft would go to Taiwan.

It would make her the third senior American official despatched to the island since August on a visit that begins only a week earlier than the inauguration of Joe Biden as US president and the top of Mr Trump’s time period.

Taiwan was “a dependable associate and vibrant democracy that has flourished regardless of CCP [Communist Chinese Party] efforts”, Mr Pompeo mentioned in characteristically direct language, including: “Taiwan exhibits what a free China might obtain”.

Evan Resnick, an assistant professor at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam College of Worldwide Research, referred to as it a “provocative” last-minute transfer by Mr Trump’s administration.

It seems designed to “fling mud in China’s eye” and make issues “more durable for the incoming Biden administration”, he instructed the BBC.

Such “chaotic, imprudent” steps have been “customary” below Mr Trump, Dr Resnick added, saying the journey would doubtless carry “much more instability” to Sino-American relations at a time the US ought to be cooperating with China on points such because the pandemic and local weather disaster.

The journey has already triggered an indignant response from China, additional damaging its relationship with the US as Mr Biden prepares to take over.

“The US pays a heavy value for its mistaken motion,” the Chinese language mission to the UN mentioned in a press release final week in response to Ambassador Craft’s deliberate journey.

“China strongly urges the US to cease its loopy provocation, cease creating new difficulties for China-US relations… and cease going additional on the mistaken path,” it mentioned.

Beijing reiterated its sharp warning to the US just a few days later, when Mr Pompeo introduced that America would scrap the long-time restrictions on its interactions with Taiwanese officers.

“Any actions which hurt China’s core pursuits can be met with a agency counter-attack and won’t succeed,” Chinese language international ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao instructed reporters on Monday.

The substance of the brand new US administration’s insurance policies on China and Taiwan stays to be seen however Dr Resnick believes a “way more coherent” technique can be deployed.

“It is going to need to repudiate so lots of Trump’s polices,” he mentioned, including that Beijing may be ready to see what the incoming administration does and “whether or not it begins to chill temperatures a bit”.

China and Taiwan have had separate governments because the finish of the Chinese language civil battle in 1949.

Beijing has constantly tried to restrict Taiwan’s worldwide actions and each have vied for affect within the Pacific area.

It is why Ambassador Craft’s journey is extremely symbolic, as Taiwan shouldn’t be a member of the UN or most world establishments on account of Beijing’s objections.

The US has no official diplomatic ties with Taipei – like most nations – although it’s certain by regulation to offer the island with the means to defend itself.

So the ending of long-time restrictions governing official contacts introduced by Mr Pompeo over the weekend marked a serious shift in relations. Taipei instantly hailed the transfer as ending “a long time of discrimination”.

Tensions between China and Taiwan have intensified lately and Beijing has not dominated out using drive to take the island again.

Within the face of those rising threats, Taiwan’s authorities has not held again in asserting itself.

On her re-election for a second time period final yr President Tsai Ing-wen instructed the BBC that the sovereignty of Taiwan was not up for negotiation.

“We’re an impartial nation already and we name ourselves the Republic of China (Taiwan),” she mentioned.

Reporting by Preeti Jha