Taiwan is “everyone’s business,” as a crisis over Taiwan would have global implications, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, adding that US President Joe Biden’s administration has shored up Taiwan’s deterrence by strengthening alliances and raising global awareness about this issue.
The US administration oversaw “a greater convergence than I have ever seen in the approach to China” by key US allies in Europe and Asia, he told an event held on Wednesday by the think tank Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Commenting on the US response to China’s “pacing challenge,” Blinken said the Biden administration has boosted Taiwan’s credible deterrence by aligning US partners.
Photo: AFP
“China says every time the word Taiwan comes up: Do not even mention it; it is no one’s business but our own,” he said.
“What we have been able to do is ... open the eyes of almost the entire world to the fact that, no, fundamentally [Taiwan] is everyone’s business,” Blinken said.
Nearly 50 percent of global shipping passes through the waters surrounding Taiwan, which also supplies 70 percent of the world’s chips, he said.
“If that is taken off the grid, you have got an economic crisis going right round the world,” he said.
Consequently, more nations have warned Beijing against changing the “status quo” or jeopardizing peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Blinken said.
“The demand signal coming from countries for China to act responsibly is more across the board and clearer and louder than any time that I remember,” Blinken said.
China’s interest in supporting Russian aggression in Ukraine is to “reshape the international system” to a mode “more reflective of its interests and values,” which involves taking part in any disruption that presents itself, Blinken said.
Beijing has put itself in an “increasingly difficult position” by allying with Russia, North Korea and Iran, as its aspirations for global leadership cannot be achieved without being perceived as a “responsible rising power,” he said.
China could not credibly claim to want to make peace in Ukraine while it supplies Moscow with arms to wage war, Blinken said, adding that the US has “put a spotlight” on China’s role in the ongoing conflict.
“We have seen countries around the world, and particularly in Europe, say: ‘No, this has got to stop,’ and even taking action against Chinese companies, against Chinese entities that are engaged in this practice,” he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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