US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday criticized China’s military maneuvers near Taiwan, urging leaders in Beijing to stop such behavior for fear of a miscalculation.
“The actions we’ve seen by China are provocative and potentially destabilizing,” Blinken said in an interview in Paris with Bloomberg Television. “What I hope is that these actions will cease because there’s always the possibility of miscalculation, of miscommunication, and that’s dangerous.”
China has ratcheted up tension in the past few weeks by sending scores of warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
Photo: CNA
At the same time, the US and several allies, including Japan and the UK, have been conducting naval drills in nearby waters.
“It’s very important that no one take unilateral actions that change the status quo by force,” Blinken said in the interview on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “We need to see China stop these actions.”
At a news conference later in the day, Blinken said that the US-Taiwan relationship is “rock solid.”
Photo: CNA
His remarks on China’s actions echoed those by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday, comments that prompted Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) to criticize the US for its “extremely erroneous and irresponsible” statements toward Taiwan.
Blinken said: “We’ll see” whether US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) are able to meet in person in the coming weeks or months.
The leaders of the world’s two largest economies have yet to meet face-to-face since Biden became president, and the US administration has so far signaled that it would continue with former US president Donald Trump’s aggressive approach toward China, especially on trade.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Blinken said that the US’ relationship with China is “one of the most consequential relationships in the world,” with adversarial, competitive and cooperative aspects to it.
The challenge of climate change, which Blinken called an “existential” issue, is one area of possible cooperation, he said.
“It’s important for both of us to step up and meet our responsibilities,” Blinken said, including steps such as moving away from coal, a major source of energy for China.
Photo: AFP
Pressed on the financial woes of Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group (恆大集團), Blinken said that the US is looking to China “to act responsibly and to deal effectively with any challenges.”
“China has to make sovereign economic decisions for itself, but we also know that what China does economically is going to have profound ramifications, profound effects, on literally the entire world, because all of our economies are so intertwined,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a letter to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), US senators Robert Menendez and James Inhofe, cochairs of the Senate Taiwan Caucus, expressed support for Taiwan in the face of the challenges posed by Beijing.
The letter, sent ahead of Double Ten National Day, said that Tsai could “count on our continued support in ensuring Taiwan remains one of our most important partners in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The letter went on to underline the importance of defending the nation’s democratic values and free-market principles.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS