Posts falsely claim Trump administration changed Taiwan webpage

Update: After this report was published, the US State Department changed several lines on its Taiwan webpage, including removing the phrase that Washington does "not support Taiwan independence." The page still states Washington only recognises Beijing as China's government.

"The new US Department of State has changed the content of its external relations page regarding Taiwan. It even removed the State Department emblem. The page now only shows the 'One China' policy," reads a simplified Chinese post on X on February 3, 2025.

The post includes three screenshots of the State Department's Taiwan fact sheet. The first shows the page titled "Taiwan", while a second displays an introductory paragraph explaining the US and Taiwan's "robust unofficial relationship" and the 1979 Joint Communique that led to a diplomatic recognition switch from Taipei to Beijing. 

"In the Joint Communique, the U.S. recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China," the paragraph states.

A third screenshot, which the post alleges shows the page as it was under former secretary of state Antony Blinken during Biden's presidency, is an archived version of the site on May 4, 2023 and displays a picture of Liberty Square in Taipei.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken February 10, 2025

The post surfaced as hundreds of US government websites went offline amid the Donald Trump administration's controversial drive to radically shrink the US government (archived link).

US-Taiwan relations warmed during Trump's first term as he feuded with China on issues like trade and national security (archived link).

But Trump rattled nerves during his most recent election campaign by suggesting Taiwan should pay the United States for protection and accusing the island of stealing the US chip industry.

While Taiwan calls itself a sovereign nation, China claims the island and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

Similar posts on X, Facebook and Weibo also surfaced in February claiming the US State Department changed its information page on Taiwan. 

The page has in fact been updated multiple times during the Biden administration, including a change that removed a line explicitly stating it did not back Taiwan independence in May 2022 which angered China (archived link). The line was reinstated later that month (archived link).

Searches of archived versions of the page on Wayback Machine found the one displaying the image of Taipei's Liberty Square was in fact replaced on  May 20, 2023, also during the Biden administration.  

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Screenshots of archives from May 19 and 20, 2023 show change in website format

AFP found the version of the fact sheet shared in the false posts, which highlights the 1979 Joint Communique at the top of the page, has been archived on the Wayback Machine since August 7, 2023. 

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Screenshot comparison between the image in the false posts (left) and an archived version of the US State Department website from August 7, 2023 (right)

The current fact sheet as of February 14 still displays the paragraph about the unofficial relationship between the United States and Taiwan at the top of the page, along with an image of the Taipei skyline and links to travel advisories for the island (archived link).

The image of the fact sheet that does not display the State Department's emblem shared in the false posts is the mobile version of the webpage. The mobile version of fact sheets for other countries similarly does not include the emblem. 

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US Department of State fact sheets on other countries also do not display the emblem in the mobile version of the webpages.

There had been no credible news reports that the US State Department had altered key information on its Taiwan fact sheet under the Trump administration when this report was originally published.

On February 16, the State Department updated several lines on the webpage, including removing the phrase that Washington does "not support Taiwan independence" (archived link).

The page still states Washington only recognises Beijing as China's government under its "longstanding one China policy" and its opposition to "any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side".