The U.S. Department of Defense temporarily removed and reposted its new Nuclear Posture Review report from its website after mistakenly labeling Taiwan as part of mainland China — the latest lapse by the Trump administration involving the sensitive issue.
"There was an error printed in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review," a Pentagon spokesperson told The Japan Times late Saturday when asked about the Taiwan labeling. The document, released Friday in Washington, was removed from the Defense Department website for several hours until the correction was made.
The U.S. established diplomatic relations with China in 1979, cutting formal ties with Taiwan as part of its "one-China" policy, though Washington has maintained friendly, nonofficial relations with Taipei — including weapons sales — as a policy of deliberate ambiguity so as to maintain stability in cross-strait relations and deter a potential invasion from the mainland.
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