Prof. ST Hsieh
Director, US-China Energy Industry Forum
626-376-7460
January 25, 2024
Taiwan is a sensitive issue for China and the US. It is also a very important issue for global trade and stability. But basically, it is an issue that can be well managed by China and the US. Strategic ambiguity worked, but unfortunately after the US aggressively implemented her Indo-Pacific policy in the past decade, Taiwan becomes a hot issue for the US and China. As the US political winds now are increasingly anti-China, the stability or peace cross the Taiwan strait becomes tenuous.
There are constant news reports quoting US generals, US politicians, western Chinese experts, think tanks on the possibility of war in the region: some reports can be alarming. But if one reaches out to the people in Taiwan, almost no one is interested in engaging any war with China. Politicians in Taiwan also clearly understand Chinese redlines.
As long as the US and China diplomats are regularly meeting and talking, both understand and accept that Taiwan is an important issue but not an urgent issue, there will be no Taiwan crisis.
In fact, we hope the US and China governments focus on enhancing exchanges between them with easier visa process, more direct flights, easing trade restrictions.
China’s top diplomat to meet US security advisor in Thailand
AFP
Thu, January 25, 2024 at 5:54 PM PST
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will on Friday meet with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Thailand, as the two powers seek to improve relations after years of tensions.
Beijing and Washington have clashed in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights, as well as over Taiwan and competing claims in the South China Sea.
“As agreed by China and the United States, Wang Yi will hold a new round of meetings with National Security Advisor Sullivan of the United States in Bangkok,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding Wang would be in Thailand until Monday.
The US said the talks would take place over Friday and Saturday.
“This meeting continues the commitment by both sides at the November 2023 Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi to maintain strategic communication and responsibly manage the relationship,” the White House said.
Speaking in Beijing this month, Wang said that while the relationship had encountered “serious difficulties”, ties had “stabilised” last year.
But Wang’s rosy assessment belied continuing sources of tension, with the two powers most recently butting heads over elections in the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims.
A delegation of US lawmakers visited the island this week, meeting with President-elect Lai Ching-te and reaffirming Washington’s support for the democracy.
In the run-up to the recent poll, Chinese officials slammed Lai as a dangerous separatist who would take Taiwan down the “evil path” of independence.
And following a Washington missive congratulating him on his election, Beijing said it “strongly deplored” the statement, warning the United States against any support for what it called “separatist forces” on the island.
In Beijing, the foreign ministry complained Thursday that Washington had “carried out a series of negative words and deeds” since Lai’s election.
Spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the United States to “immediately stop infringing and provocative actions” and “stop causing trouble for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
White House’s Sullivan to meet with China’s foreign minister in Bangkok
Thu, January 25, 2024 at 6:02 PM PST·
FILE PHOTO: 54th WEF annual meeting in Davos
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bangkok on Friday and Saturday, building on a commitment by the two countries’ leaders to deepen dialogue between the world’s two largest economies.
The Chinese foreign ministry announced the meeting in a separate statement.
The meeting comes a little more than two months after U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for about four hours on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco.
Biden and Xi agreed to open a presidential hotline, resume military-to-military communications, and work to curb fentanyl production, but remained at odds over Taiwan.
“This meeting continues the commitment by both sides at the November 2023 Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi to maintain strategic communication and responsibly manage the relationship,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
She said Sullivan, who reports directly to Biden, would also meet with Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Deputy Prime Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-nukara.
“In these meetings, Mr. Sullivan will reaffirm the importance of the U.S.-Thailand treaty alliance and partnership and discuss opportunities to strengthen cooperation across a range of bilateral and global issues,” Watson said.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Eric Beech and Dan Whitcomb in Washington, and Liz Lee in Beijing and the Shanghai bureau; Editing by Tom Hogue)