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Washington / Taipei (dpa) - Shortly before the change of power in the White House, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his last trip abroad to the increasingly critical allies in Europe.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus announced that the Ministry had canceled “all trips planned for this week” in the course of the ongoing handover of official business to the future US President Joe Biden.
Actually, Pompeo should have met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Belgium's Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès on a two-day visit to Brussels from today.
With the travel stop for all US diplomats, the historic visit by the American UN Ambassador Kelly Craft to Taiwan this week also falls through.
It would have been the first visit of this kind to the diplomatically isolated island state since 1968.
The Chinese government had already protested violently in advance.
The communist leadership sees the now democratic Taiwan as part of the People's Republic, although it has never been part of it.
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The US State Department justified the refusals with pending personnel decisions and efforts to ensure a smooth transfer of power to the Biden administration.
The broadcaster CNN, on the other hand, citing two high-profile sources in the ministry, reported that the decision not to travel to Europe was linked to criticism from European government officials at the storm on the Capitol and the role of US President Trump.
Scheduled - but never made public - talks in Luxembourg have been canceled by the government there, according to CNN.
Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, described Trump as a “criminal” and “political arsonist” who should be tried before a criminal court after his supporters had stormed the parliament building in Washington.
In Taiwan, the cancellation of the visit by the UN ambassador met with disappointment.
A presidential spokesman said Taiwan respected the US decision and hoped the visit could be rescheduled "at an appropriate time."
With the visit, the US government had actually intended to "reaffirm the US's strong and sustained support for Taiwan's international scope".
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However, the visit would also have increased tensions with China.
Beijing had called on the US not to upgrade relations with Taiwan or to strengthen military cooperation.
The US government had previously announced that it would in future maintain official contacts with the government in Taiwan in order to no longer “appease” the leadership in Beijing.
The dispute over the status of Taiwan goes back to the civil war in China when the troops of the national Chinese Kuomintang fled to Taiwan after their defeat by the communists under Mao Tsetung.
The Communist People's Republic was founded in Beijing in 1949, while Taiwan was ruled as the "Republic of China".
Taiwan had to leave the United Nations in 1971 under pressure from Beijing and is still not allowed to belong to UN organizations.
With its one-China doctrine, the communist leadership firmly rejects official relations between its diplomatic partners and Taipei.
The US and Taiwan do not have diplomatic relations.
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is the US agency.
Germany also only has an unofficial representation and no embassy in Taipei.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210113-99-03108 / 2