China has reiterated Beijing’s steadfastness regarding Taiwan, telling the United States to stop providing military aid ahead of a key election on the self-ruled island.
Wrapping up two days of military talks in Washington on Tuesday, the Chinese side said Beijing will “not make any concession or compromise on the Taiwan question and demand that the US side honor the one-China principle, relevant commitments, stop arming Taiwan, and not support Taiwan independence.”
This comes just days ahead of Chinese Taipei’s crucial general elections, which could push the wayward island politically closer to or farther from Beijing.
China sees the island as part of its own territory, but the US-backed secessionists on it see themselves as independent from the Chinese mainland.
“China expressed its willingness to develop healthy and stable military-to-military relations with the United States on the basis of equality and respect,” China’s Defense Ministry added.
This is the first military talk between the two sides since 2021, after China’s Defense Ministry canceled military talks with the US to protest a provocative 2022 visit to Taipei by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, vowing to launch “targeted military actions” in response to her visit.
The resumption of the talks between the two global powers early this week took place only after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden agreed to it during a meeting in November.
Prior to that, multiple attempts to reconcile US-China relations by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, and US climate envoy John Kerry were to no avail.
Chinese Taipei is a key bone of contention between Washington and Beijing in the ongoing power struggle between China and the US for supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region.
