Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last year asked US President Joe Biden to change the language the US uses when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence, according to two US officials familiar with the private conversation.
During a Biden-Xi meeting in November last year near San Francisco, Xi and his aides asked Biden and his team to tweak the language in US official statements.
China wanted the US to say “we oppose Taiwan independence,” rather than the current version, which is that the US “does not support” independence for Taiwan, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about private diplomatic exchanges they participated in or were briefed on.
Photo: Reuters
Xi’s aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, according to two US officials and another person familiar with the exchanges.
The US has declined to make the change.
The White House responded to a request for comment with a statement that repeated the line that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence.”
“The Biden-[US Vice President Kamala] Harris administration has been consistent on our long-standing one China policy,” the statement read.
“You should ask this question to the US government. China’s position on the Taiwan issue is clear and consistent,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.
For several years, Chinese diplomats have pushed the US to make changes to how it refers to Taiwan’s status.
The unusually direct and renewed push at the leader level has not been reported previously.
It was not clear why Xi raised the issue with Biden, but he has made opposition to Taiwanese independence a focus of his time in office and China’s military has significantly ramped up its activities around the nation in the past few years.
The Biden administration regards the proposed language change as a non-starter.
Taiwan was briefed on the recent overtures at a high level by Washington, one of the sources said.
Leaders in Beijing “would love it if Joe Biden said very different things about Taiwan than he says, no doubt,” said one senior Biden administration official, adding that Biden would stick with the standard US formulation for talking about Taiwanese independence.
During his time in office, Biden has upset the Chinese government with comments that appeared to suggest the US would defend the nation if it were attacked, a deviation from a long-held US position of “strategic ambiguity.”
A change by Washington to say that it opposes Taiwanese independence would reverberate through the trade-rich Asia-Pacific region, and with US partners, competitors and adversaries alike.
Officials from two governments in the region told reporters that they would interpret any such change in wording as a change in US policy toward less support for Taipei’s defense and diplomatic aspirations at a time when Beijing has ramped up military pressure.
Any switch in language could also be seen signaling a shift in US policy from supporting the resolution of Taiwan’s future through peaceful talks to one suggesting that the US stands against Taiwanese aspirations regardless of the circumstances.
In 2022, the US Department of State changed its Web site on Taiwan, removing wording on not supporting Taiwanese independence and on acknowledging Beijing’s position that “Taiwan is part of China.”
It later restored the language on not supporting independence for Taiwan.
The two leaders are expected to speak again before Biden’s term in office ends in January, talks that might come by phone or on the sidelines of next month’s G20 summit in Brazil or APEC summit in Peru.
APEC is one of few international forums where Taiwan and China take part.
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