The US and China are to hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday, the latest sign of a thaw in relations, as the Chinese vice president said Beijing was willing to talk with Washington to resolve their bitter trade dispute.
The resumption of high-level dialogue, marked last week by a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), comes ahead of an expected meeting between the two at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month.
It follows months of recriminations spanning trade, US accusations of Chinese political interference, the disputed South China Sea and Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
China and the US have both described last week’s telephone call between Trump and Xi as positive. Trump predicted that he would be able to make a deal with China on trade.
In a concrete sign of the unfreezing, the US Department of State said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Chinese State Counselor Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) and Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) would take part in diplomatic and security talks in Washington.
China last month said the two sides had initially agreed “in principle” to hold a second round of diplomatic security talks last month, but that they were postponed at Washington’s request amid rising tensions over trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Mattis had been due last month to hold talks with Wei in Beijing, but those plans were upended after Washington imposed sanctions on China’s People’s Liberation Army for buying weapons from Russia.
Mattis did meet Wei in Singapore on Oct. 18 and told him that the world’s two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties to reduce the risk of conflict.
Speaking in Singapore yesterday, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan (王岐山), who is close to Xi, reiterated China’s readiness to hold discussions and work with the US to resolve trade disputes as the world’s two largest economies stand to lose from the confrontation.
“Both China and the US would love to see greater trade and economic cooperation,” Wang told the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
“The Chinese side is ready to have discussions with the US on issues of mutual concern and work for a solution on trade acceptable to both sides,” he said. “The world today faces many major problems that require close cooperation between China and the United States.”
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS