NEW YORK, United States — US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken called Friday
for calm over Taiwan as he met his Chinese counterpart, as soaring tensions
showed signs of easing a notch.
اضافة اعلان
Blinken met for 90 minutes with Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, in
talks a US official described as “extremely candid” and focused largely on
Taiwan.
Blinken “stressed
that preserving peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is critical to
regional and global security and prosperity,” a State Department statement
said.
He “discussed the
need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the US-PRC
relationship, especially during times of tension,” it added, using the acronym
for the People’s Republic of China.
A State Department
official described the exchange on Taiwan as “direct and honest”.
The official said
Blinken also renewed US warnings not to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,
amid guarded US hopes that
Beijing is taking a distance from Moscow, nominally
its ally.
Wang met in New
York with Ukraine’s foreign minister for the first time since the war and, in a
Security Council session Thursday, emphasized the need for a ceasefire rather
than support for Russia.
Blinken, who went
ahead with the talks despite the death of his father the previous day, met Wang
for the first time since a sit-down in July in Bali, where both sides appeared
optimistic for more stability.
One month later,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, infuriating Beijing, which staged
exercises seen as a trial run for an invasion of the self-governing democracy,
which it claims as its territory.
And in an interview
aired Sunday, President Joe Biden said he was ready to intervene militarily if
China uses force in Taiwan, once again deviating from decades of US ambiguity.
In the meeting with
Blinken, Wang accused the US of “sending very wrong and dangerous signals”
encouraging Taiwan independence, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a
readout.
Wang told Blinken
that
China wished for “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan and warned that “the
more rampant ‘Taiwan independence’ activities are, the less likely a peaceful
solution would be,” according to the foreign ministry.
The US official
said Blinken insisted to Wang that “there has been no change” to the US policy
of only recognizing Beijing and voiced opposition to “unilateral changes to the
status quo” by either side.
Taiwan the ‘biggest
risk’
In a sign that tensions have eased, Wang also met in New York with US
climate envoy John Kerry, despite China’s announcement after Pelosi’s visit
that it was curbing cooperation on the issue, a key priority for Biden.
But in a speech
before his talks with Blinken, Wang called Taiwan “the biggest risk in China-US
relations” and accused the US of stoking pro-independence forces.
“Taiwan
independence is like a highly disruptive great rhinoceros charging toward us.
It must be stopped resolutely,” he said at the Asia Society think tank.
“Just as the
US will not allow Hawaii to be stripped away, China has the right to uphold the
unification of the country,” he said.
He denounced the US
decision to “allow” the Taiwan visit by Pelosi, who is second in line to the
presidency after the vice president. The Biden administration, while privately
concerned about her trip, noted that Congress is a separate branch of
government.
But Wang was
conciliatory toward Biden. The New York talks are expected to lay the
groundwork for a first meeting between Biden and President Xi Jinping since
they became their two countries’ leaders, likely in Bali in November on the
sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 economic powers.
Wang said that both
Biden and Xi seek to “make the China-US relationship work” and to “steer clear
of conflict and confrontation.”
The US Congress is
a stronghold of support for Taiwan, a vibrant democracy and major technological
power.
Last week, a Senate
committee took a first step to providing billions of dollars in weapons
directly to Taiwan to deter China, a ramp-up from decades of only selling
weapons requested by Taipei.
Tensions have also
risen over human rights, with the US accusing the communist state of carrying
out genocide against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people.
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