An unusual moment in the recent democracy summit highlights a problematic irony in Joe Biden’s Taiwan policy. A video feed of a Taiwan Minister was cut during US President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy on December 10. The video was cut after the Taiwanese Digital Minister’s presentation showed a map with Taiwan & China marked in different colors.
The US State Department called it an honest mistake and said the video was removed due to a confusion over share-screening. However, some reports say the presentation by Taiwanese Minister Audrey Tang alarmed US officials. Some news agencies said the video was cut during a discussion & was replaced with audio only after orders from the White House.
According to Reuters, Tang’s map sparked a flurry of emails between US officials, and the National Security Council reached out to the State Department to complain that the slide had not been included in “dry-run” versions of the presentation before the summit.
