A leading US foreign policy expert is charging that the administration of US President Barack Obama has “shown little to no knowledge or real interest” in the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). William Bader, a former chief of staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, makes his case in a letter given prominent display in Thursday’s edition of the Financial Times.

The letter is a response to a column published in the newspaper last month by Asia editor David Pilling and headed “US cannot sacrifice Taiwan to court the Chinese.”