Antony Blinken urges China to halt ‘provocative’ actions toward Taiwan
- Beijing has sent scores of warplanes into the island’s air defence identification zone in recent weeks, ratcheting up tensions
- Blinken also urged China to act ‘responsibly’ in the Evergrande financial crisis
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called China’s recent actions around Taiwan “provocative”, warned of the risks of “miscalculation” and vowed to deepen ties with the self-governed island that Beijing considers a wayward province.
They also followed a high-level meeting in Zurich on Wednesday at which National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised Taiwan and other issues with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi.
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Taiwan denounces mainland China for ‘over the top’ flights into island’s air defence zone
“We are very concerned by the [People’s Republic of China’s] provocative military activity near Taiwan,” Blinken said at the conclusion of an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting in Paris.
“The activity is destabilising, it risks miscalculation, and it has the potential to undermine regional peace and stability,” he said in a news briefing. “So we strongly urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion directed at Taiwan.”
Apparently referring to Washington’s long-standing one-China policy under which it officially recognises Beijing rather than Taipei, and the Taiwan Relations Act, Biden said on Tuesday that he had discussed Taiwan with Xi, and that they agreed to abide by “the Taiwan agreement”.
Taiwan’s defence ministry reported on Monday that 52 mainland Chinese fighter jets had flown to the island’s southwest ADIZ, a record number that has raised concerns of unintended military incidents.