Xi-Biden Apec summit: ex-US envoy Max Baucus calls for frank talks on Taiwan to ease ties

Name: PLA will show ‘no mercy’ against Taiwan independence moves, top Chinese general says
Uploaded: 2023-11-12T03:00:17.000Z
Duration: 4 min
Description: PLA will show ‘no mercy’ against Taiwan independence moves, top Chinese general says

Beijing’s ‘non-negotiable position’ on Taiwan not well understood in the US, former ambassador Baucus says

If this is made clear ‘in a non-confrontational way’, the US will realise some of its actions ‘may not be a good idea’, he tells the Post in Hong Kong

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Max Baucus, US ambassador to Beijing from 2014 to 2017 and a former senator, says a lack of American understanding of China has made many bilateral issues difficult to resolve. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Kawala Xie

Published: 11:00am, 12 Nov 2023Updated: 4:49pm, 12 Nov 2023

Candid exchanges on Taiwan could help to avoid miscalculations when the US and Chinese heads of state meet on the Apec sidelines this week, former US ambassador to China Max Baucus said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was expected to be “very firm” on the Taiwan issue when he met US counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco on Wednesday, Baucus said, adding the summit would be helpful for the US to better understand China’s positions on different matters of contention.

“China’s non-negotiable position [on Taiwan] is not well understood in America. And it’s important for him, President Xi, to make that clear to President Biden,” he told the Post in an interview on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Forum on US-China relations on Friday.

“The more [Beijing] makes it clear, and clear enough in a non-confrontational way … That’s going to help President Biden realise that some of the actions taken by his administration, arms sales, for example, or proposed legislation by other members of Congress, may not be a good idea,” said Baucus, ambassador to China under president Barack Obama from 2014-17 and a former senator.

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PLA will show ‘no mercy’ against Taiwan independence moves, top Chinese general says

Tensions between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan have continued to rise in recent years.

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