Taipei minister's video feed during Biden summit cut

WASHINGTON • A video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut during US President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy last week after a map in her slide presentation showed Taiwan in a different colour from China, which views the island as a renegade province.

Sources familiar with the matter said Friday's slide show by Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang caused consternation among American officials after the map appeared in her video feed for about a minute.

The sources, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the video feed showing Ms Tang was cut during a panel discussion and replaced with audio only - at the behest of the White House.

The White House was concerned that differentiating Taiwan and China on a map in a US-hosted conference - to which Taiwan had been invited in a show of support at a time when it is under intense pressure from Beijing - could be seen as being at odds with Washington's "one-China" policy, which avoids taking a position as to whether Taiwan is part of China, the sources said.

The State Department said "confusion" over screen-sharing resulted in Ms Tang's video feed being dropped.

"We valued Minister Tang's participation, which showcased Taiwan's world-class expertise on issues of transparent governance, human rights and countering disinformation," a spokesman said.

Ms Tang's presentation included a colour-coded map from South African non-governmental organisation Civicus ranking the world by openness on civil rights. Most of Asia was shown, with Taiwan coloured green, making it the only regional entity portrayed as "open".

When the moderator returned to Ms Tang a few minutes later, there was no video of her, just audio, and a screenshot captioned: "Minister Audrey Tang Taiwan".

An onscreen disclaimer later declared: "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."

One source told Reuters the map generated an e-mail flurry among US officials and the White House National Security Council (NSC) angrily contacted the State Department, concerned that it appeared to show Taiwan as a distinct country.

But an NSC spokesman said Reuters' account of the incident was "inaccurate" and that "at no time did the White House direct that Minister Tang's video feed be cut".

Taiwan's foreign ministry blamed it on "technical problems" and said: "Taiwan and the United States have fully communicated on this technical issue, and the two sides have a solid mutual trust and a solid and friendly relationship."

REUTERS