VIENTIANE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s concerns over Beijing’s actions toward Taiwan and its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine as he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday. Blinken, who earlier called out China for escalating maritime tensions with the Philippines, talked extensively with Wang about Taiwan and Beijing’s recent "provocative” actions toward the democratically governed island, a senior US State Department official said.
Those actions included a simulated blockade during the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, the official said. Blinken and Wang agreed to keep making progress on their countries’ military-to-military ties, bit did not discuss nuclear arms control talks, which China has halted in protest over Washington providing arms to Taiwan, the official said.
"In every discussion, Taiwan is the issue that they care most about. They see it as ... an internal China issue,” said the official, who briefed reporters travelling with Blinken. China’s government considers Taiwan inviolable Chinese territory, which Taiwan rejects. The two talked for one hour, 20 minutes on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos, in their sixth meeting since June 2023, when Blinken visited Beijing in a sign of improvement in strained relations between the world’s two biggest economies.
The two did not set a date for their next meeting, the official said. China’s foreign ministry had no immediate statement on the latest meeting. Blinken is touring East Asia in a bid to reassure countries close to China of US commitment, despite political uncertainty at home. He travelled to Vietnam later on Saturday and was set to hold security talks alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Japan and the Philippines in the coming days.
Blinken conveyed to Wang that US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, both believed in the importance of stability in the US-China relationship, and that a rules-based order must be upheld, the official added. Blinken also discussed China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and warned of further US actions if China does not curtail that, according to the official.
Washington has levied sanctions at targets including China-based companies selling semiconductors to Moscow, as part of an effort to undercut the Russian military machine waging war on Ukraine. "There was no commitment by the Chinese to take action,” the official said. Blinken also raised with Wang US concerns over human rights in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet, and stressed the need for more progress from Beijing on counter narcotics including fentanyl precursors coming out of China.
The two also discussed a recent agreement between Palestinian factions brokered by Beijing, the official said, casting doubt on how effective that deal could be at settling the bitter rivalry between Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, which ran the Gaza strip.
"We’ve seen a number of purported reconciliations before that have not proven to bear fruit,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Australia's foreign minister on Saturday called on Myanmar's junta to "take a different path" from its bloody crackdown on dissent, saying the situation in the war-torn country is "not sustainable". Penny Wong made the comments at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, where the crisis in ASEAN member Myanmar has divided the bloc.
The country was plunged into a civil war after the military seized power in a coup in 2021. Weeks after it seized power and launched a crackdown on dissent the junta agreed to a five-point peace plan with ASEAN but has failed to implement it. "Myanmar is deeply concerning, we see it in the economy, instability, insecurity, deaths," Wong told journalists at a press conference. "The message I want to send to the military regime is 'this is not sustainable for you and your people'." "We urge them to take a different path and reflect the five-point consensus."
The junta has been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings over its crackdown on dissent. It had previously refused to send "non-political representatives" but two senior bureaucrats are representing the country at the talks in Vientiane. A Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity earlier this week that the military's readiness to re-engage diplomatically was a sign of its "weakened position".
ASEAN has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis but with little success. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have called for tougher action against the junta, while Thailand has held its own bilateral talks with the generals as well as detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The conflict in Myanmar has forced 2.7 million people from their homes since the coup in 2021, according to the United Nations. – Agencies