Blinken Calls for ‘Peace and Stability’ with Taiwan in Meeting with CCP Counterpart

Senior diplomats from the United States and China met Sep. 23 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shook hands but did not respond to questions from the media as they sat down for talks.

Blinken told Wang that the maintenance of peace and stability on the issue of Taiwan was vital to the relationship between the two nations.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that Taiwan was the focus of the meeting.

“For our part, the Secretary made crystal clear, that in accordance with our long-standing one-China policy, which again has not changed, the maintenance of peace and stability across the Strait is absolutely, vitally important,” the official said.

The meeting took place despite a truncating of Blinken’s schedule, following the announcement that his father, Donald, had died the night before at the age of 96.

It also followed an exceptionally contentious week in Sino-American relations following the release of a “60 Minutes” interview in which President Joe Biden stated that U.S. forces would defend Taiwan from an invasion by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Taiwan in Focus

The CCP, which rules China as a single-party state, claims that Taiwan is a breakaway province of China that must be united with the mainland. Its leadership has repeatedly said that it is willing to use military force to achieve this goal, and has previously threatened to start a war over the issue.

Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since 1949, however, and has never been controlled by the CCP.

Formally, the United States recognizes, but does not endorse, the CCP’s position, and the two sides have long agreed that neither side should attempt to unilaterally change the status quo.

Concerning the issue of