US sending ‘dangerous signals’ on Taiwan, China tells Blinken

NEW YORK, September 24

China has accused the United States of sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” on Taiwan after the US Secretary of State told his Chinese counterpart on Friday that the maintenance of peace and stability over Taiwan was important.

Taiwan was the focus of the 90-minute, “direct and honest” talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York, a US official told the media.

“For 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,” the senior US administration official said.

China’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement on the meeting, said the United States was sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” on Taiwan, and the more rampant 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 cited Wang as saying.

Tensions over Taiwan have soared after 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 pledge by US President Joe Biden to defend the democratically governed island.

Biden’s statement was his most explicit to date about committing US troops to the defend the island. It was also the latest instance of his appearing to go beyond a long-standing US policy of “strategic ambiguity,” which does not make it clear whether the United States would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan. — Reuters