Taiwan-China: Ex-Australia PM Kevin Rudd criticises Pelosi's visit to island

Former Australian Prime minister Kevin Rudd has criticised US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Speaking to BBC World News' Karishma Vaswani in Singapore, he said that the visit amounted to "fiddling around with the symbols of the One China policy".

The West should instead be focusing on Taiwan's ability to deter a future military strike by China, he said.

The One China policy is diplomatic acknowledgement of China's position that there is only one Chinese government - in Beijing. Under the policy, the US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than the island of Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province to be unified with the mainland one day.

However the policy is not an endorsement of the Chinese position and Washington has what it calls a "robust unofficial" relationship with Taiwan.

The US has accused China of seeking to change the status quo in the region by holding large military drills around Taiwan after Mrs Pelosi's visit.