US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that any unilateral action by China against Taiwan would threaten global stability as Beijing has launched war exercises around the island.
“It appears that the Chinese leadership no longer accepts the ‘status quo’ that has set Taiwan’s course for the past 40 years and helped maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Blinken complained in a statement. interview with the French daily newspaper ‘Ouest France’.
Blinken criticized China’s “pressure maneuvers” “at the economic and military level” to “isolate Taiwan from international organizations or its relations with certain countries in the world,” but reiterated that US policy remains unchanged in this regard.
The head of US diplomacy made it clear that while he does not explicitly support Taiwan’s independence, he respects the bilateral agreement with the area to provide the authorities with “everything they need to defend against any attack”.
“In our relationship with China, we have made it very clear that the basis of this relationship is a mutual understanding that our differences must be resolved peacefully, and not through unilateral action, whether that be pressure, coercion or, worse, the use of strength,” explains Blinken in an interview published before the start of the exercises.
The Chinese military exercises, involving all branches of the armed forces, are intended as a mock blockade of the island and in retaliation to the recent meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing Wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which Beijing interpreted as a serious affront to its sovereignty ambitions over Taiwan.
Finally, Blinken stressed that Taiwan is critical to global economic development.
“Fifty percent of the world’s commercial traffic passes through the strait every day,” he said, before noting that the territory produces at least 70 percent of the world’s microprocessors.
“If a crisis were to arise as a result of China’s unilateral action, it would probably be a crisis that would affect the whole world. We would end up with a real economic crisis, which is why it is in everyone’s interest that these problems are dealt with in a timely and responsible manner,” he concluded.
Source: DN
