Taiwan is central to the global economy, and preventing a crisis or conflict across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of concern for all US partners, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said on Friday.
Kritenbrink made the comment at a discussion on the importance of US alliances in the Indo-Pacific region hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, which was also attended by US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner.
Kritenbrink said the US is committed to investing in its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, and assisting them in building the collective capacity to mange the challenges they face, as that is the best way to manage the China challenge, which affects them as well as the US.
Photo: Screengrab from the Brookings Institution’s YouTube channel
As part of Washington’s diplomatic push in the region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Tonga, New Zealand and Australia next week, while US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is departing next week to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Regarding Taiwan, Kritenbrink said that the US is trying to make the point that maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of international concern, as it is central to global security and prosperity.
“Fifty percent of the world’s container traffic flows to the Taiwan Strait, and 90 percent of the world’s high-end chips are made in Taiwan,” he said.
“Taiwan is central to the global economy,” Kritenbrink said. “Maintaining peace and stability and preventing a crisis or conflict across the Taiwan Strait should be a matter of concern for all of our partners in the region and around the world.
He said there has been no change to the US’ “one China” policy.
He said the US is committed to maintaining peace and stability, so its message to Beijing would be “to not challenge that status quo, to cease the provocative and coercive actions they have taken across the Strait and aimed at Taiwan.”
Ratner said he can see that Taiwan is committed to its own defense, as it has made a political commitment in terms of military and reservist reforms, and a substantial financial commitment with major increases in its defense budget.
“I look at what they do and how they are responding to the type of coercion they are under as a significant and reassuring sign of their commitment to their own resilience and defense,” he said.
Asked about his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng (謝峰) on Wednesday last week, Ratner said they “had a very good discussion,” but he refused to characterize the discussions.
“I will say what Secretary Austin has emphasized on a number of occasions, which is that the US continues to seek open lines of communication with the PLA,” he said, referring to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“We think this is important for stability in peace time and during potential crises, and it is unfortunate that the PLA has not responded to that outstretched hand,” Ratner said.
“We are going to continue to encourage open lines of communication without preconditions,” he added.
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