The top US diplomat in Taiwan said China should abandon its threats and military pressure against Taiwan and talk to its leaders, as that would avoid misunderstandings and stabilize relations.
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene, the de facto US ambassador, said the consistent US policy has been to support exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
He was on Saturday discussing the visit of Taiwan’s opposition leader to China on a Taiwanese political talk show.
Photo: Screen grab from CTS Three Kingdoms Talk’s YouTube channel
“However, we also expect China — Beijing — to maintain open communication channels with all of Taiwan’s political parties, especially the leaders elected by the Taiwanese people, in order to avoid misunderstandings and to stabilize cross-strait relations,” Greene said in Mandarin. “We further expect China to abandon threats against Taiwan or military pressure. I believe this would help ease cross-strait tensions.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on Friday had a meeting in Beijing, which she called a mission of peace to China.
The Chinese military operates daily around Taiwan, activities that continued while Cheng was in China.
The opposition, which has a majority in parliament, has stalled government military spending plans, including an extra US$40 billion special defense budget which has provisions to buy US weapons and which Washington has backed.
Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, the US is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier and international backer.
While the US supports dialogue, that cannot replace deterrence, Greene said.
“I don’t think there is a conflict here, because if there is sufficient deterrence capability, it will lead to a more equal dialogue,” he added. “There are three ways to resolve cross-strait differences: the first is dialogue, the second is coercion and the third is war. So, if Taiwan can have sufficient deterrence capability, it can take the option of war off the table.”
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