Beijing/Washington D.C.: Beijing grossly misinterpreted Joe Biden by stating that the US President, during his virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on November 16, 2021, had “reaffirmed” the US government’s long-standing one-China policy, and that he had stated that the US does not support “Taiwan independence”.
What Biden had said was that the United States remains committed to the “one China” policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances, and that the United States strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
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Biden further reiterated in a press gaggle in Washington that “Yes. We have made very clear we support the Taiwan Act, and that’s it. It’s independent. It makes its own decisions.”
China today hit back at the USA, claiming that “both the so-called “Taiwan Relations Act” and the “Six Assurances”, concocted by some forces in the US, contravene the three China-US Joint Communiqués.
“In essence, they place US domestic law above international obligations and are illegal and invalid,” Chinese foreign minisry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, told reporters here today.
Biden, though, while talking to mediapersons yesterday after the talks, said the US was not going to change its policy on Taiwan at all. He was then asked by a journalist: “Can you clarify what the policy is? Because you said today “independence,” and in the past you said —”. Biden interrupted midway and replied: “No, no, I said that they have to decide — “they” — Taiwan. Not us. And we are not encouraging independence, we’re encouraging that they do exactly what the Taiwan Act requires, and that’s what we’re doing. Let them make up their mind. Period. Taiwan make up —”
Biden further said that during his three and a half hours’ meeting with Jinping, he made it clear along that the US was going to abide the the rules of road. “What constitutes international airspace is international airspace, no matter what they say. There’s no air identification zones — is what they’re called. Secondly, the Law of the Seas requires and dictates what constitutes territorial waters. We’re going to stay outside of their territorial waters, but we’re not going to be intimidated or change to not go up through the South China Sea. And we talked about that, and it was — there was no argumentation, just a matter of fact.”
Reacting to Biden’s statement, China today stressed that what the US should abide by is the one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués, “which are important political consensus between China and the US and the political foundation of Chine-US ties”.
– global bihari bureau
