China’s increasingly provocative rhetoric and actions against Taiwan are “deeply destabilizing,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a key China policy speech on Thursday.
“Beijing is engaged in increasingly provocative rhetoric and activity, like flying PLA [Chinese People’s Liberation Army] aircraft near Taiwan on an almost daily basis,” Blinken said in the 45-minute speech at George Washington University in Washington, during which he outlined the US administration’s policy toward China.
“These words and actions are deeply destabilizing,” and “risk miscalculation and threaten the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Blinken said that the US would manage its relationship with China “responsibly” to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, which he said is “a matter of international concern” and “critical to regional and global security, and prosperity.”
However, Blinken said that US policy on Taiwan has not changed.
The US “remains committed to our ‘one China’ policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques [and] the six assurances,” he said.
“We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means,” he added.
Blinken said that the US would continue to uphold its commitment to assist Taiwan in maintaining sufficient self-defense capability in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, which has served as the foundation for Taiwan-US relations since 1979.
The US would also “maintain our capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of Taiwan,” he said.
Blinken also said that the US would continue to expand its cooperation with Taiwan on many shared interests and values.
That includes deepening bilateral economic ties and supporting Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community, he said.
In Taipei yesterday, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told reporters that China is changing the “status quo” and using “inappropriate force” by conducting military sorties near Taiwan.
Su thanked Blinken for voicing concern over China’s military maneuvers and vowed that Taiwan would defend itself and work with other countries to contribute to the peace and stability of the region.
The Democratic Progressive Party yesterday also thanked Blinken for reiterating US commitments to Taiwan’s security and international participation.
From Blinken’s speech, it is evident that the US is highly concerned about China’s suppression of Taiwan in multiple areas, party spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-fen (謝佩芬) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Lin Chia-hsing (林家興) said that Blinken’s comments were consistent with the KMT’s long-standing positions on defending the Constitution, maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and opposing Taiwanese independence.
In the South China Morning Post ahead of Blinken’s speech on Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang (秦剛) wrote an op-ed entitled “One China principle is the bedrock of peace across the Taiwan Strait.”
“This bedrock, however, is in peril like never before,” he wrote, blaming Taipei and Washington for “hollowing out” the “one China” policy, while Beijing is “doing our utmost for a peaceful reunification.”
Ting Shu-fan (丁樹範), professor emeritus at National Chengchi University, said that Blinken merely reiterated the US’ existing stance by saying the nation would try to enhance its relationship with Taiwan in accordance with its “one China” policy.
Blinken’s remarks did not come as a surprise, nor did they contain the more assertive wording used by US President Joe Biden, Ting said, referring to the president’s comments in Tokyo on Monday suggesting the US would intervene militarily if China were to attack Taiwan.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin and Shih Hsiao-kuang
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS