Beijing has warned Washington to stop arming Taiwan after the US Senate approved a bill that includes $8bn for countering China’s actions threatening America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific region. The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and upgrading Taiwan’s military hardware and is meant to counter the threat of invasion by China, which claims the island as its own territory. Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the US for the latest-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams tanks and the Himars rocket systems,…
Tag: Antony Blinken
Antony Blinken heads to China with warning for Beijing over support of Russia
Antony Blinken was due to land in China on Wednesday, amid a worsening rift between the world’s two most powerful countries that threatens to overshadow otherwise improving relations. The US secretary of state is coming with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia, which are helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernise his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine. Relations between China and the US had been warmer recently,…
‘Planet Earth is big enough for two’: Biden and Xi meet for first time in a year
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in California on Wednesday, exchanging handshakes and smiles as they embarked on face-to-face dialogues that both sides hope will stabilise US-China relations. The US president opened his remarks by saying that tensions between the two countries should “not veer into conflict”. The Chinese president responded by saying that “turning their back on each other is not an option” for the superpowers. “Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other,” he said.…
Joe Biden calls for stable US-China relationship during south-east Asia tour
Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country. “I don’t want to contain China,” Biden said. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.” Biden also said that China’s recent economic downturn may limit any inclination to invade Taiwan. “I don’t think it’s…
China wants to erase Tibet. Will Britain stay quiet about this crime? | Simon Tisdall
Last week’s US sanctioning of Chinese officials involved in Beijing’s ongoing criminal efforts to erase Tibet as a separate political, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious entity showed America at its best. Few other governments give a hoot. Most cravenly look the other way. Citing a recent UN report on the “forced assimilation” of one million Tibetan children ordered into Mandarin-language state boarding schools far from their homes and families, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, demanded China stop trying to eradicate Tibet’s distinct identity. “We urge PRC [People’s Republic…
China officials hit by US sanctions over ‘forced assimilation’ of children in Tibet
The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials pursuing “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools, in the latest in a series of US moves on Beijing that comes despite a resumption of high-level dialogue. “These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” Blinken said…
Antony Blinken calls China’s behaviour in the Pacific ‘problematic’ on visit to Tonga
US secretary of state Antony Blinken warned of China’s “problematic behaviour” during a visit to the Pacific island nation of Tonga, citing Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea and what he called economic coercion. China’s growing presence in the region, which saw it sign a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year, has fuelled concern in the US and Australia about Beijing’s ambitions, and prompted increased Western aid and engagement. Blinken said at a press conference that the US had no objection to China’s engagement with the region…
US-China talks set out the most modest aim: better communication
When Janet Yellen left Beijing on Sunday after four days of talks, the US treasury secretary in effect admitted that the delegation achieved its main objective simply by sitting down with top Chinese officials. After years of dangerous and deepening separation between the people running the world’s two biggest economies, they were finally back in a room together. At a brief press conference that was the only tangible outcome of the talks, Yellen listed her hopes for the future. They included something that a decade ago would have been taken…
‘India is now a linchpin’: US looks to Narendra Modi’s visit to counter China
The symbolism of the visit will be hard to avoid. As Narendra Modi arrives in Washington DC on Wednesday – the capital of a country he was once prohibited from visiting for almost 10 years – he will join the ranks of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Volodymyr Zelenskiy as one of the few leaders to address a joint session of Congress more than once. Statements from US officials ahead of the visit have been rapturous on the subject of US-India relations, praising the “significant defence partnership” and describing it…
Xi and Blinken exchange warm words while refusing to budge
Antony Blinken’s meeting with Xi Jinping on Monday may have lasted only 35 minutes, but both sides insisted that it represented progress in the strained relationship. The two men exchanged warm words while both refusing to budge on their respective core interests. That the US secretary of state was able to meet China’s leader at all was a diplomatic coup for the highly anticipated visit. Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing since 2018, but until he arrived in the Chinese capital it was not confirmed that he…