Secretary of State Antony Blinken clashes with his Chinese counterpart over Beijing’s growing aggression against Taiwan in an ‘exceptionally candid’ meeting at the G20 summit in Rome
- Antony Blinken met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday
- A State Department official said they had an ‘exceptionally candid’ conversations about Beijing’s growing aggression toward Taiwan
- It was their first face-to-face since a fiery meeting in Alaska back in March
- The hour-long meeting took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome
- The official said the meeting will help lay the groundwork for a virtual summit between Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year
Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi locked horns over Taiwan on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in an ‘exceptionally candid’ meeting on Sunday.
The senior officials traded warnings against moves that could further escalate tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
In an hour-long meeting in Rome, the U.S. Secretary of State made ‘crystal clear’ that Washington opposes any unilateral changes by Beijing to the status quo around Taiwan, a senior State Department official said.
The face-to-face was described at ‘constructive, productive and exceptionally candid’ by an official to the Wall Street Journal.
Just a week ago the White House was forced to clarify U.S. President Joe Biden’s comments at a CNN town hall where he said that ‘yes,’ the United States would come to Taiwan’s aid if China attacked.
Blinken’s meeting with Wang was their first in person since a fiery exchange in Alaska in March.
An official said it will help lay the groundwork for a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
Blinken’s meeting with Wang was their first in person since a fiery exchange in Alaska in March
Wang expressed China’s ‘solemn concern over various issues on which the U.S. side has damaged China’s legitimate rights and interests, and asked the U.S. side to change its course and promote China-U.S. relations back to the track of healthy development’, China’s foreign ministry said
A recent increase in Chinese military exercises in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, including what Taipei said were eight such flights on Sunday, is part of what it views as stepped-up military harassment by Beijing.
The United States wants to manage the intense competition between the world’s two largest economies responsibly, the State Department official said, adding that both sides acknowledged that open lines of communication are paramount.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during national day celebrations in front of the Presidential Palace in Taipei on October 9. Tsai said shortly before the G20 that she has ‘faith’ the U.S. would defend her island against China
Wang expressed China’s ‘solemn concern over various issues on which the U.S. side has damaged China’s legitimate rights and interests, and asked the U.S. side to change its course and promote China-U.S. relations back to the track of healthy development’, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Wang said it was misleading of the United States to blame China for a change in the status quo on Taiwan, saying it is U.S. ‘connivance’ and ‘support’ for pro-independence forces in Taiwan that are at fault, China’s statement said.
China claims the island as part of its own territory and views any foreign intervention over Taiwan as interference in its domestic affairs.
While the United States, like most countries, has no formal relations with Taiwan, Washington is the island’s most important international supporter and main arms supplier, and is required by law to provide it with the means to defend itself.
Washington has long followed a policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, though Biden said last week that it would come to Taiwan’s defense if necessary.
Blinken made clear that Washington had not changed its ‘one China’ policy regarding Taiwan, the official said, and Blinken said there was ‘no change in our policy’ when pressed on CNN on Biden’s comment.
‘We’ve had a long-standing commitment,’ he said, under the Taiwan Relations Act that Biden supported when he was a senator ‘to make sure that Taiwan has the means to defend itself. And we stand by that. The president does sit by that strongly’.
‘We want to make sure that no one takes any unilateral action that would disrupt the status quo with regard to Taiwan. That hasn’t changed,’ Blinken said.
Wang told Blinken that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue between China and the United States. ‘We require the United States to pursue a real one China policy, not a fake one China policy,’ Wang was quoted by the ministry as saying.
Blinken and Wang did not discuss a recent Chinese hypersonic weapons test that military experts say appears to show Beijing’s pursuit of an Earth-orbiting system designed to evade American missile defenses, the State Department official said.
Last week Biden’s State Secretary called for Taiwan to have more ‘meaningful’ participation in the United Nations after a meeting between U.S. and Taiwanese officials.
Speaking on the 50th anniversary of UN General Assembly recognizing the Chinese Communist Party’s mainland government as the ‘only legitimate representative of China’ and booting out the former government that was operating out of Taipei, Blinken called the little island a ‘democratic success story.’
‘Taiwan’s exclusion undermines the important work of the UN and its related bodies, all of which stand to benefit greatly from its contributions,’ he said in a statement.
China responded by saying Taiwan has no place in the international body.
‘The United Nations is an international governmental organization composed of sovereign states,’ the spokesman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said. ‘Taiwan is a part of China.’
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