A Chinese official has played down a reported assurance by President Xi Jinping to U.S. President Joe Biden that China has no plans to invade Taiwan.
Xi was reported by the Associated Press as having told Biden during a meeting in San Francisco on November 15 that he had no plans to invade Taiwan. The report cited a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity, and the assurance was not confirmed by Chinese sources.
China has never ruled out the threat of invading Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory despite its rejection by the self-governing island. But Beijing has also long emphasized prioritizing peaceful “re-unification” rather than war.
Tensions are growing across the Taiwan Strait ahead of Taiwan’s 2024 election, particularly given that the candidates of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are both prominent China skeptics.
Chen Binhua, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s national cabinet, accused DPP candidate Lai Ching-te and others of taking Xi’s reported comments out of context and hyping them in a way that downplayed the danger of “Taiwan independence” activities by saying that the mainland “has no plans to attack Taiwan in the coming years,” according to the state-run Global Times.
Chen was responding to comments Lai had made targeting the opposition Kuomintang Party during campaigning in Taiwan’s Yunlin County.
“The Kuomintang has continued to spread rumors during this election, saying that “if you vote for the DPP, young people will go to the battlefield” and that 2024 will be an election of war and peace. So Xi Jinping’s words have proven that the Kuomintang is telling election lies,” Lai had said.
No Change
Chen underlined that China’s position on Taiwan had not changed.
“Lai has taken the content related to the Taiwan question out of context and maliciously hyped it,” the Global Times quoted Chen as saying.
“Chen said that by hyping the reports, Lai and some individuals on the island are creating excuses for continuing provocations, attempting to confuse public opinion and deceive voters.”
Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Lai, a self-described “pragmatic Taiwan independence worker,” has strategically avoided advocating for formal statehood for the island, a move that could provoke conflict across the Taiwan Strait. He did not immediately respond to a Newsweek request for comment on Chen’s statement.
Lai’s running mate, Hsiao Bi-Khim, expressed the hope that Xi’s statements that no invasion was planned were sincere but emphasized the need for caution, using the phrase “trust, but verify”, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported.
According to the Associated Press, Biden chided China for its major military build-up around Taiwan during his meeting with Xi at the time of the APEC summit and also called on Beijing not to meddle in Taiwan’s election. Biden also reiterated that the United States would continue to arm Taiwan so it could defend itself.
According to China’s foreign ministry, Xi warned the United States against supplying arms to Taiwan to honor its commitment not to support Taiwan’s independence and to support its reunification with the mainland.
“China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable,” he said, according to the foreign ministry readout.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.