Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned President Joe Biden that his administration is “playing with fire” when it comes to Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province. Xi urged the US against encouraging Taiwanese independence, calling it “dangerous.”
“Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire,” Xi said during a virtual meeting with Biden on Monday, per the official Xinhua News Agency. “Whoever plays with fire will get burnt,” he added.
“We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts,” Xi said. “That said, should the separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence’ provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures.”
Biden “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said, per a readout of the meeting.
The US has not supported calls for Taiwanese independence, and has had a long-standing policy of leaving it unclear how it would respond should China attempt to seize the democratically governed island of 24 million by force. Biden recently sent mixed signals about this posture.
Tensions between the US and China have reached historic heights in recent years, and Taiwan remains at the heart of the myriad disagreements between the two major powers.
In 1979, the US formally established ties with China’s communist government and cut off official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But Washington has continued to maintain unofficial but strong relations with Taiwan and the US is its top weapons supplier. Under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the US is committed to providing Taiwan with defensive weapons.
“The US will make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability,” the law states.
China has repeatedly pushed the US to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, warning that it could foment a broader conflict; the US in recent years has provided advanced weapons like F-16 fighters, main battle tanks and Harpoon anti-ship missiles useful to fend off an invasion by the world’s largest navy. Meanwhile, under Xi’s leadership the Chinese military has become increasingly aggressive toward Taiwan — it sent a number of large waves of military aircraft into the island’s air defense zone last month.
Biden has also made recent statements that conflicted with the US government’s longstanding policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan. Simply put, the US has long been intentionally vague about whether it would come to Taiwan’s defense if attacked. But Biden last month appeared to commit the US to Taiwan’s defense, prompting the White House to walk back on his statements and state there’d been no change in policy.
The president, whose lengthy political career has in many ways been defined by a focus on foreign policy, in 2001 wrote an op-ed that criticized then-President George W. Bush for saying the US would do “whatever it took” to defend Taiwan.
“Words matter,” Biden wrote at the time. “There is a huge difference between reserving the right to use force and obligating ourselves, a priori, to come to the defense of Taiwan. The president should not cede to Taiwan, much less to China, the ability automatically to draw us into a war across the Taiwan Strait.”
In short, Biden criticized Bush for offering conflicting signals on Taiwan as president, only to do the same once he was in the White House.
Top experts on China have emphasized the importance of clear messaging from the US on Taiwan.
“It is important that the US have a clear policy and consistent messaging to China, Taiwan, and the rest of the world on this issue because it is likely the only issue that could lead to a US-China military conflict,” Bonnie Glaser, the director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the US, recently told Insider.
Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, underscored that a “muddled or confused US approach toward Taiwan weakens deterrence.”
“The US has a longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity regarding whether it would intervene if China attacked Taiwan. That policy has served the US well in the past and will continue to serve US interests in the future. For that to work, however, the Washington needs to be consistent,” Funaiole added.
Though Xi took a stark tone on the issue of Taiwan, the Chinese leader and Biden were relatively cordial in their largely fruitless virtual meeting on Tuesday. Xi referred to Biden as an “old friend,” adding, “China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation,” the Associated Press reported.
Biden, who has made challenging China’s growing global influence a top priority, opened up the meeting by stating, “As I’ve said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended.”
“Just simple, straightforward competition,” he added.
There were no major breakthroughs or announcements as a result of the meeting.
Credit: Yahoo News