US President Joe Biden will stress peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait when he meets today with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping (習近平), on the sidelines of the APEC summit, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
“The [US] president, broadly speaking, is going to set out a vision for peace and stability and the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Sullivan said on Monday when asked what message Biden would deliver to Xi ahead of Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13.
The meeting between Biden and Xi, who last met in November last year on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Indonesia, has drawn considerable attention given heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Photo: AFP
“President Biden has had the opportunity to engage, and so have the rest of us, on how we effectively manage peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, so that we can sustain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Sullivan said.
He described the US-China relationship as “complex” and “competitive,” which could easily lead to conflict or confrontation if it is not managed well.
Managing this complex relationship with China in an effective way is the most important single responsibility of Biden and his administration, and the president believes there is no substitute for leader-to-leader, face-to-face diplomacy in managing it, Sullivan said.
Sullivan added that Biden thinks today’s meeting would not be a one-off event, but an important moment to help establish a basis on which the US and China can proceed into the future.
“You avoid escalation, you manage competition, so it doesn’t veer into conflict,” Sullivan said. “That to us is an absolutely straightforward factor, and no matter what else is happening in the relationship, those military-to-military links should remain intact.
“The way we achieve that is through intense diplomacy. That’s how we clear up misperceptions and avoid surprises,” Sullivan said.
Beijing cut off military conversations with Washington last year after a visit to Taipei by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in August last year. The visit angered China, which launched military drills around Taiwan soon after Pelosi left.
In addition to the Taiwan issue, Sullivan said the US and China would discuss critical issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war and efforts to combat the trade in fentanyl.
In Taipei, National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said that Taiwan is working on securing a one-on-one meeting with Biden and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), who is to attend the summit as President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) envoy.
“The two sides are discussing related arrangements,” Koo said in response to media queries on whether Chang would have a one-on-one meeting with Biden at APEC.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
A senior Taiwanese official familiar with the matter said that Taipei had requested such a meeting with the US leader at previous APEC meetings, and that the arrangement depended on Biden’s availability.
Asked whether Chang had been tasked with greeting Xi and sending him a message from Tsai, Koo said: “No.”
However, he added: “Everything should happen naturally.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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