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Improper handling of Taiwan issue to influence Sino-US ties: Xi to Biden

In this file photo taken on November 15, 2021, US President Joe Biden (L) meets with China’s President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC. (AFP)

China’s President Xi Jinping has warned his American counterpart, Joe Biden, that improper handling of the thorny issue of the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) will negatively impact the already strained Sino-US relations.

“Some individuals in the United States are sending the wrong signals to pro-independence forces in Taiwan, and that's very dangerous,” Xi told Biden on a video call on Friday, according to Chinese media on Saturday.

“If the Taiwan issue is not handled properly, it will have a subversive impact on the relationship between the two countries,” the Chinese leader said.

China has sovereignty over the self-ruled Chinese Taipei, and under the ‘One China’ policy, virtually all world countries recognize that sovereignty. But successive US administrations and other Western governments have been courting officials in the Chinese Taipei in an attempted affront to Beijing.

The United States has been selling weaponry to the Chinese Taipei and staging shows of military force around it. American warships periodically embark on provocative voyages through the strategically-sensitive Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China, often drawing angry responses from China. Washington is the island’s largest weapons supplier. Since 1997, the Chinese Taipei has bought at least 400 of the missiles from the US.

The White House has also facilitated easier diplomatic contact with the self-ruled island, in violation of the Chinese sovereignty. China has in response ramped up military patrols and drills near the self-ruled island.

Biden has told Xi that Washington’s policy on Taiwan has not changed, emphasizing that the US “continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo.”

The Chinese Taipei remains China’s most sensitive territorial issue and a major bone of contention with Washington. China has repeatedly warned the US against any formal relations with the government in Taipei.

The Biden administration has taken on a hostile stance against China, including over the Chinese Taipei.


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