The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Office yesterday thanked US President Joe Biden for reiterating Washington’s commitment to maintaining the “status quo” during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The ministry "expresses its appreciation and sincere thanks to President Biden for again publicly declaring resolute US support for the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) told reporters.
As a responsible member of the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan would continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities and deepen its security partnership with the US to jointly safeguard cross-strait peace and stability, ensure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and defend the rules-based international order, Liu said.
Photo: Reuters
Xi and Biden met for the first time in a year on Wednesday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California.
Liu said Biden reiterated that Washington "opposes any unilateral changes to the ’status quo’ from either side" and expected "cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means."
Biden also stated that "the world has an interest in peace and stability" and called for restraint in China’s use of military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait, Liu said.
The Presidential Office also thanked Biden for his comments, while urging China to refrain from military action near the Taiwan Strait and from interfering in Taiwan’s elections.
Cross-strait disagreements should be resolved peacefully, office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said, adding that the statements show a high degree of international consensus on the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Strait.
Responding to reports that Xi said China was not preparing an imminent invasion of Taiwan, Liu said that the government has never sought to predict whether or when China might attack, but was concentrating on boosting its defenses and winning international support.
This is to "let China understand the high importance the international community attaches to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the high price of starting a war, and to not act blindly without thinking," he said.
An unnamed US senior official told Reuters that Xi had told Biden that Taiwan was the "biggest, most dangerous issue in US-China ties."
The official quoted Xi as saying Beijing’s preference was for "peaceful reunification," but went on to talk about conditions in which force could be used, adding that "at some point we need to move toward resolution more generally."
The official said that Xi was trying to indicate that China is not preparing for a massive invasion of Taiwan, but that does not change the US approach.
Taiwan would neither provoke nor "advance rashly," but will also not succumb to pressure, Liu added.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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