On the eve of the virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Biden, the Global Times newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party ran an editorial, calling Taiwan an essential issue that must be settled when the two countries’ Presidents talk to each other. Both China’s Foreign Minister and U.S. Secretary of State highlighted the Taiwan question, but GT stated Nov. 14, “There is a huge gap between their views, making it one of the biggest difficulties of the meeting.”
Perhaps reflecting this focus, a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Sunday, “I do not expect tariffs to be something that will be on the agenda for tomorrow night.” Asked whether Biden and Xi would discuss the current global supply chain crisis, the official said it was also “not something I expect to be a significant point of discussion.” There won’t be a joint statement. White House officials say to expect no major announcements. Clarifying, this meeting is occurring on Monday night EST, Tuesday morning Beijing time.
GT says the U.S. has stated that its expectation for the China-U.S. video summit is to “responsibly manage the competition between the U.S. and the P.R.C.” The editorial goes on: “However, in order to ‘manage the competition between the U.S. and China,’ the most critical and urgent is to defuse the explosive question concerning Taiwan, because the Taiwan Straits is the most likely flashpoint to trigger the confrontation between China and the U.S.” The paper aggressively rules out China negotiating to resolve cross-Strait issues, as Secretary of State Tony Blinken just urged. “After the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power again in 2016, it immediately abandoned the 1992 Consensus and never mentioned the one-China principle after that. Promoting ‘Taiwan secession’ has become their explicit goal. However, the U.S. did not stop the DPP authority’s risky actions, but encouraged them…. The U.S. has pursued the Indo-Pacific Strategy with the main purpose of containing China, and played the ‘Taiwan card’ against China. The Taiwan authorities have completely inclined to the U.S., openly claiming that they serve as ‘the front line of democracy against authoritarianism.’”
“Yes, the Chinese mainland has been stepping up its preparations for a military conflict across the China Straits.” The editorial asserts that, “trying to figure out Washington’s logic is a waste of time, and force seems to work better than reasoning with the U.S. side.” The editors maintain the only way to stabilize the cross-Straits situation is to ease confrontation politically, and rebuild the political foundation for peaceful coexistence and discussion of the future between the two sides.
And that means, according to Global Times, the United States working with China to “suppress Taiwan secession…. The Taiwan question is the ultimate red line of China. In order to reduce the risk of a strategic conflict between the U.S. and China, the U.S. must take a step back from the Taiwan question and show its restraint. It is targeting China’s core interests…. Washington must understand it has gone too far, leaving China with no way back….
