U.S. SCRAPS RESTRICTIONS ON OFFICIAL DEALINGS WITH TAIWAN

The United States is lifting decades-old restrictions between American and Taiwanese officials, in a move that will fundamentally change Washington's relationship with the self-governed island -- and is expected to anger Beijing, Kylie Atwood reported for CNN early.

Washington has for years "created complex internal restrictions to regulate" US officials' dealings with Taiwan "in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Saturday. "No more," Pompeo wrote.

China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, and US dealings with the democratically ruled island have long been a source of tension.

In a statement, Pompeo, a staunch critic of China, wrote that US diplomats should now consider all previous State Department contact guidelines regarding relations with Taiwan to be "null and void."

The order comes less than two weeks before the administration of President-elect Joe Biden takes over, and is likely to be a hurdle for the incoming team to deal with. The US has maintained close ties with Taiwan since it split from mainland China in 1949 after the end of a bloody civil war.

Washington has avoided major displays of friendship so as to not antagonize Beijing, which continues to view the self-governing democracy of around 24 million people as an inseparable part of its territory, under its One China policy but China never exercised direct control over the island. Beijing also never exercised control in any part of the South China Sea that it now claims as its own.

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