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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet on Friday amid sour relations between the countries due to the rising tensions at the Taiwan Strait.
What Happened: U.S. Department of State announced that the two leaders would meet on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and manage competition responsibly, the Secretary will discuss a range of bilateral and global issues with the PRC State Councilor and Foreign Minister,” the department said in a statement.
Neither the U.S. nor China revealed the agenda for the two leaders to discuss.
Why It’s Important: The meeting comes days after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack. Biden’s statement drew a harsh response from China that said the U.S. was sending the wrong signal to those seeking Taiwan’s independence, where it claims sovereignty.
The remarks made by Biden were the most recent of several instances when the U.S. appeared to go beyond its long-standing established policy on Taiwan. The two nations have long stuck to a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” while the U.S. has also often reiterated that it also respects Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ‘One China policy.’
Meanwhile, a Chinese government spokesperson on Wednesday once again reiterated Xi Jinping’s proposal of peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan. He proposed after “reunification,” Taiwan could have its own “social system different from the mainland” to ensure their religious freedoms and way of living, but that was “under the precondition of ensuring national sovereignty, security, and development interests.”
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.