Top diplomats from the US and China on Friday held a “candid and constructive” discussion on issues vexing their strained relations over Taiwan and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US Department of State said.
The meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany marked the latest and highest-level meeting between the two sides since US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) held talks late last year in California.
Blinken emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Photo: AFP
He also raised concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base that Washington sees as helping Moscow’s military operations against Ukraine, as well as the need to expand on nascent counternarcotics efforts, he said.
“The two sides had a candid and constructive discussion on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition in the relationship,” Miller said.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wang called on the US to remove sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals.
Wang said that Washington’s policy of “derisking” economically from Beijing “has become ‘desinicizing,’ ‘building a tall fence’ and ‘de-coupling from China’” and “will come back to bite the US itself,” a ministry readout yesterday morning said.
He also called on the US to stop searches of Chinese nationals.
Chinese state media recently published reports of Chinese citizens being searched at the US border.
In one prominent case, a group of students led by their professor from Beijing Foreign Studies University were interrogated for three hours upon arriving at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Xinhua news agency reported.
Wang affirmed that cooperation to combat the spread of fentanyl was going “positively” and would continue, as well as the agreement to keep military-to-military communications.
Both sides also discussed the Israel-Hamas war and the war in Ukraine.
Blinken “reiterated that the United States will stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners,” Miller said.
The situations in the Middle East and with North Korea were also topics of conversation, he added.
“Both sides recognized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and [China] across a range of strategic issues, including consultations and high-level meetings in key areas in the coming months,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS