WASHINGTON, 06 March 2022, (TON): Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said “the United States should diplomatically recognise Taiwan as a free and sovereign country.”

Pompeo told reporters a Chinese invasion of self-governed Taiwan would depend on “the willingness of the Western world to demonstrate that the costs for Xi Jinping engaging in that kind of activity are just too high.”

Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat by Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island and vows to seize it one day – by force if necessary. Pompeo, one of former President Donald Trump’s most hawkish advisers on China, had arrived on Wednesday for a visit at a time of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing over both Taiwan and the crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing lashed out at Pompeo over his remarks, calling him “a former politician whose credibility has gone bankrupt”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told media “this kind of person’s wild ravings and nonsense will never prevail.”