US dispatching ‘dangerous signals’ on Taiwan, China informs Blinken – Nexus News
China has blamed the United States for sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” on Taiwan, and has informed Washington that it had “no right to interfere” in whatever methods Beijing may use to “resolve” the Taiwan issue.
Taiwan was the main focus of 90 minutes of “direct and honest” dialogues between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, a US official informed reporters.
“The secretary made it crystal clear that, in accordance with our longstanding one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important,” the senior US administration official said.
China’s foreign ministry, in a communique on the meeting, stated that Washington was sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” about Taiwan, and the more unrestrained Taiwan’s independence activity, the less likely there would be a peaceful settlement.
“The Taiwan issue is an internal Chinese matter, and the United States has no right to interfere in what method will be used to resolve it,” the ministry quoted Wang as saying.
Chinese state media disclosed that Wang’s meeting with Blinken tackled China’s position on the “wrong behavior” of the US towards Taiwan.
“We must clearly oppose and prevent ‘Taiwan independence’,” China’s Global Times news outlet cited Wang as telling Blinken.
Tensions over Taiwan have heightened since a visit there in August by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi – which was followed by large-scale Chinese military drills – as well as a recent vow by US President Joe Biden to protect the democratically ruled island.
Biden’s words were his most explicit to date about sending US troops to defend Taiwan.
Wang had a similar message for the United Kingdom’s foreign minister James Cleverly during a meeting earlier this week, also on the margins of the UNGA in New York.
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Wang stated that the UK should “honor its one-China commitment and unequivocally oppose ‘Taiwan independence’,” China’s foreign ministry disclosed in a statement.
The White House has emphasized that its Taiwan policy has not changed, but China said Biden’s words sent the wrong signal to those seeking an independent Taiwan.
China sees Taiwan as one of its provinces. Beijing has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.
Taiwan’s government strictly opposes China’s sovereignty statement and says only the island’s 23 million people can decide its future.
In a phone call with Biden in July, Chinese leader Xi Jinping cautioned about Taiwan, saying “those who play with fire will perish by it”.
The State Department had previously said that Blinken’s meeting with Wang on Friday was part of a US effort to “maintain open lines of communication and manage competition responsibly”.
Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for Asia under President Barack Obama, stated that the fact that Blinken and Wang had met was important after the troubles brought by Pelosi’s visit.
Russel said that hopefully some progress would have been made towards arranging a meeting between Xi and Biden on the margins of a G20 meeting in November, which would be their first in person as leaders.
“Wang and Blinken’s decision to meet in New York does not guarantee the November summit will go smoothly or that it will even occur. But had they been unable to meet, it would have meant the prospects for a summit in November were poor,” said Russel, now with the Asia Society Policy Institute.
In a speech to the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, Wang noted that the Taiwan question was growing into the biggest risk in China-US relations.
“Should it be mishandled, it is most likely to devastate our bilateral ties,” Wang said, according to a transcript from the Chinese embassy.
