Tensions over Taiwan have soared after a visit there in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
\nNEW YORK:
\nChina has accused the United States of sending \u201cvery wrong, dangerous signals\u201d on Taiwan after the U.S. secretary of state told his Chinese counterpart on Friday that the maintenance of peace and stability over Taiwan was vitally important.
\nTaiwan was the focus of the 90-minute, \u201cdirect and honest\u201d talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, a U.S official told reporters.
\n\u201cFor our part, the secretary made crystal clear that, in accordance with our long-standing one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important,\u201d the senior U.S. administration official said.
\nChina\u2019s foreign ministry, in a statement on the meeting, said the United States was sending \u201cvery wrong, dangerous signals\u201d on Taiwan, and the more rampant Taiwan\u2019s independence activity, the less likely there would be a peaceful settlement.
\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d the ministry cited Wang as saying.
\nTensions over Taiwan have soared after a visit there in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi – which was followed by large-scale Chinese military drills – as well as a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to defend the democratically governed island.
\nBiden\u2019s statement was his most explicit to date about committing U.S. troops to the defend the island. It was also the latest instance of his appearing to go beyond a long-standing U.S. policy of \u201cstrategic ambiguity,\u201d which does not make it clear whether the United States would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan.
\nThe White House has insisted its Taiwan policy has not changed, but China said Biden\u2019s remarks sent the wrong signal to those seeking an independent Taiwan.
\nIn a phone call with Biden in July, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned about Taiwan, saying \u201cthose who play with fire will perish by it.\u201d
\nChina sees Taiwan as one of its provinces and has long vowed to bring the island under its control and has not ruled out the use of force to do so.
\nTaiwan\u2019s government strongly objects to China\u2019s sovereignty claims and says only the island\u2019s 23 million people can decide its future.
\nTaiwan\u2019s foreign ministry, responding to the meeting between Blinken and Wang, said China\u2019s \u201crecent provocative actions\u201d had made the Taiwan Strait a focus of discussion, and China was trying to \u201cconfuse the international audience with arguments and criticisms that contradict reality.\u201d
\nThe State Department had said earlier that Blinken\u2019s meeting with Wang was part of a U.S. effort to \u201cmaintain open lines of communication and manage competition responsibly,\u201d and the senior official said Blinken had reiterated U.S. openness to \u201ccooperating with China on matters of global concern.\u201d
\nBlinken also \u201chighlighted the implications\u201d if China were to provide material support to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine or engage in wholesale sanctions evasion, the official added.
\nU.S. officials have in the past said they had seen no evidence of China providing such support.
\nBlinken \u201cunderscored that the United States and China and the international community have an obligation to work to counter the effects of that invasion and also to deter Russia from taking further provocative actions,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tensions over Taiwan have soared after a visit there in August by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi NEW YORK: China has accused the United States of sending \u201cvery wrong, dangerous signals\u201d on Taiwan after the U.S. secretary of state told his Chinese counterpart on Friday that the maintenance of peace and stability over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-285438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n