The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed gratitude toward the US for reiterating its support for cross-strait peace following a round of high-level talks between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) held over the weekend.
Washington and Beijing late on Saturday separately announced that Sullivan and Wang, who is also a Chinese Communist Party Politburo member and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, met in Bangkok on Friday and Saturday.
Both sides said the round of talks was meant to follow up on the San Francisco summit of US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in November last year that included issues related to Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East, North Korea, the South China Sea and Myanmar.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
The talks were part of an effort “to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition in the relationship as directed by the leaders,” the White House said in its statement.
Sullivan stressed that although the two world powers “are in competition, both countries need to prevent it from veering into conflict or confrontation,” it said.
Regarding cross-strait relations, Sullivan “underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said.
“Sullivan reiterated that the United States remains committed to our One China policy guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Communiques,” it said. “He indicated the US opposes unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, that we do not support Taiwan independence, and that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved peacefully.”
A separate statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wang stressed during the two-day meeting that “the Taiwan question is China’s internal affair, and the election in the Taiwan region cannot change the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China,” referring to the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 13.
“The biggest risk to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the so-called ‘Taiwan independence’ movement. The biggest challenge to China-US relations is also the ‘Taiwan independence’ movement,” it added.
MOFA yesterday thanked Washington for reiterating its support for cross-strait peace and stability, but it denounced Wang’s remarks that “the Taiwan question is China’s internal affair.”
In its statement, MOFA reiterated that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent country and that neither it nor the People’s Republic of China is subordinate to the other.
These facts and the “status quo” have long been recognized by the international community, with the Jan. 13 presidential and legislative elections marking yet another demonstration of its “mature and healthy democracy,” which received widespread international acclaim and congratulatory messages from more than 100 countries, MOFA said.
“No distorted narrative on Taiwan’s sovereign status by China can alter the fact nor the status quo,” it added.
Beijing has been attempting to change the “status quo” by being provocative and threatening Taipei, the ministry said.
That China repeatedly uses cross-strait issues to pressure other countries and to drive a wedge between Taiwan and others demonstrate that Beijing is “the troublemaker damaging regional and cross-strait peace and stability,” it added.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS