China

Blinken: China aggression against Taiwan would be ‘serious mistake’


Joe Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Sunday the US is concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force.

“What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits,” Blinken told NBC’s Meet the Press.

On Thursday, China blamed the US for tensions after an American warship sailed close to Taiwan. On Friday the White House said it was keeping a close watch on increased Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait, and called Beijing’s actions potentially destabilizing.

The US has a longstanding commitment to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and to sustain peace and security in the western Pacific, Blinken said. Asked if the US would respond militarily to a Chinese action in Taiwan, Blinken declined to comment on a hypothetical.

“All I can tell you is we have a serious commitment to Taiwan being able to defend itself,” he said. “We have a serious commitment to peace and security in the western Pacific. We stand behind those commitments. And in that context, it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change that status quo by force.“

Taiwan has complained of repeated missions by China’s air force near the island, which China claims.

On Friday, the state department issued new guidelines that will enable US officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, a move that deepens relations with Taipei amid stepped-up Chinese military activity.

A state department spokesman, Ned Price, said the new guidelines followed a congressionally mandated review and would “provide clarity … on effective implementation of our ‘one China’ policy” – a reference to the longstanding US policy under which Washington officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei.



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