The map used in Tang’s presentation is produced by South African NGO Civicus, which ranks the world by openness on civil rights. In it, Taiwan is labelled in green, making it the only regional entity described as “open”, while all the others, including several US allies and partners who were also participants in Joe Biden’s summit, were shown as being “closed”, “repressed”, “obstructed” or “narrowed”. China, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea were coloured red and labelled “closed”.
According to people familiar with Friday’s event who spoke to Reuters, the map led officials at the White House National Security Council to express concern. The NSC was also upset as the slide had not appeared in dry-run versions of the presentation before the summit, according to the report.
