Speaking with Fareed Zakaria on his CNN Sunday program on Nov. 7, National Security Adviser reiterated that the Biden Administration adheres to the “One-China principle” and will not change U.S. policy on Taiwan. What the U.S. wants, he said, is a peaceful coexistence between the two countries, but where “the terms of that kind of coexistence in the international system [is] favorable to American interest and values, to be set up so that the rules of the road reflect an open, fair, free Indo-Pacific region, an open, fair, free international economic system, and where basic values and norms that are enshrined in the universal declaration of human rights are respected in international institutions.”
Global Times responded in its Nov. 8 Editorial to Sullivan’s comments positively, but with skepticism as to whether they would be transformed into action, given how the U.S. is still pushing the envelope on Taiwan. “The political elite in the U.S. will not accept the Chinese system,” Global Times writes. “They actually just acknowledged the reality that China’s system cannot be shaken externally, so instead, they tried to figure out what they can do to undermine the constant vitality that the Chinese system infuses into the country’s development, to eventually crumble the system. This is what the Biden administration means by `intense competition.’
