China: US Sending ‘Very Wrong, Dangerous Signals’ About Taiwan

Tensions between the United States and China have been broiling this year, after a trip from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August.

China said The United States is sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” about Taiwan after a conversation between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the UN General Assembly on Friday.

“For our part, the secretary made [it] crystal clear that, in accordance with our long-standing one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important,” a senior US official told reporters.

In a statement after the meeting, China’s foreign ministry said that the US is sending “very wrong, very dangerous signals” about Taiwan. They say recent actions and statements surrounding Taiwan made by the US will encourage those who support an independent Taiwan and that makes a peaceful resolution less likely.

“The Taiwan issue is an internal Chinese matter, and the United States has no right to interfere in what method will be used to resolve it,” Wang was quoted as saying.

The talk between Blinken and Wang is said to have lasted roughly 90 minutes

Tensions have been boiling over the island after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in the summer. China responded by holding military drills in the area which resulted in President Biden stating that the US would defend the island if necessary.

While the White House insists that its “one-China” policy has not changed, his comments were a divergence from the “strategic ambiguity” that was applied before. That policy made it unclear if the US would send troops to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion.

China says Biden’s remarks send conflicting messages to those who support an independent Taiwan.

China and Taiwan were ruled by one government until the Chinese Civil War saw the Chinese Communist Party take control of mainland China while the Nationalists fled to Taiwan where they were able to stop the advances of Communist forces. Since then, both governments have claimed to be the true leaders of all of China, mainland and Taiwan included.

The US opened relations with the People's Republic of China in 1971 and recognized it as the sole legitimate government of China. Since then it has had a one-China policy, recognizing the government’s desire to reunite Taiwan with the rest of China, but insisting it is done through peaceful means. While the US acknowledges Beijing as the true government of China, it also has unofficial relations with the government of Taiwan.

Tensions between China and the US have reached their highest point in decades, largely because of Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.

In July, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned Biden about Taiwan during a phone call, saying, “those who play with fire will perish by it.”

That Blinken and Wang talked at all is a sign that relations may warm slightly. The hope, according to Daniel Russel, the top US diplomat for Asia during the Barack Obama administration, is that it will be the first step towards a meeting between Biden and Xi at November’s G-20 meeting.

“Wang and Blinken’s decision to meet in New York does not guarantee the November summit will go smoothly or that it will even occur. But had they been unable to meet, it would have meant the prospects for a summit in November were poor,” Russel told CNBC.

Next week, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit the leaders of Japan and South Korea, two US allies in the region, to discuss the security situation surrounding Taiwan.