US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “had a direct and frank exchange on issues related to Taiwan” on Friday, a senior US administration official said.
The two diplomats met for nearly 90 minutes in New York and their conversation mainly focused on Taiwan, the official said.
The meeting came amid a period of rising tensions between Washington and Beijing and capped a busy week of diplomacy for Blinken at the UN General Assembly, where he met with a number of fellow diplomats from around the world and delivered remarks rebuking Russia’s war in Ukraine . at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday. It also came as Blinken mourns a huge personal loss — his father, Donald Blinken, died Thursday night.
According to the official, the meeting with Wang was “extremely frank, direct, constructive and in-depth,” and Blinken emphasized “the need to maintain open lines of communication so that we can responsibly manage the U.S.-China relationship, especially in times of tension .”
“Clearly, the differences between the United States and China are real, but we recognize the need to responsibly manage those differences and the competition between us,” they said.
Officials have described managing the relationship between the US and China as one of the most important challenges facing the US. Relations between the two nations became even more strained after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August, after which Beijing increased its provocations towards the island.
In a speech at the Asia Society on Thursday, Wang warned that “as things stand, the Taiwan issue is becoming the biggest danger in China-US relations.”
“If it goes wrong, it is very likely to destroy our bilateral ties,” he said.
US President Joe Biden, in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, was asked whether US forces would defend Taiwan.
“Yes, if there was in fact an unprecedented attack,” he replied. US officials have said their policy towards the island has not changed, and according to the senior administration official, Blinken in his meeting on Friday made it “crystal clear”.
“He emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the official said.
Blinken “also reiterated our strong condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine and emphasized the consequences if China provides material support to the Russian invasion or engages in wholesale sanctions evasion,” they said.
In recent weeks President Vladimir Putin described Chinese President Xi Jinping – his key ally – as having questions and concerns about the situation in Ukraine. But the officials gave no indication that the meeting left Blinken with any expectation that China plans to take steps to oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think the Chinese position, for better or for worse, is pretty clear and consistent and we’ve seen that through public comments,” the official said.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said last Friday that she believes the relationship between Moscow and Beijing is “a relationship of convenience, not necessarily a relationship of trust or a relationship that will combine their efforts on all things.”
“This is not a full marriage in all ways, shapes and form, but they will certainly work together, but they will also work to the benefit of each other,” Sherman said in a conversation with Washington Post Live.
“It was very interesting that President Putin made a remark that he knew Xi Jinping had concerns about what he was doing in Ukraine,” he said. “Very interesting for Putin to say that.”
Sherman said she is “certain that Xi Jinping is looking for an advantage while Russia continues its unprovoked, premeditated and terrifying invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign country.”
“Xi Jinping has always talked about sovereignty and territorial integrity, so that doesn’t match the principles he wants for his own views, whether it’s Hong Kong or Tibet or Taiwan,” he said.
