The Chinese government on Wednesday urged the United States to “handle with prudence” the Taiwan issue and to “stop” sending weapons to the island, remarks made just hours before the arrival of US President Donald Trump in Beijing, EFE reported, according to Agerpres.
At a regular press briefing, Zhang Han, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, China’s executive branch, stressed that the Taiwan issue is “an entirely internal matter of China” that “admits no external interference of any kind.”
“China firmly opposes any form of military contact between the United States and the Taiwan region of China,” the spokesperson said, adding that Beijing urges the US side to respect the “One China principle” and the three China-US joint communiqués, to handle the Taiwan issue with prudence, to stop selling arms to Taiwan and not to send the separatist forces any wrong signals regarding Taiwan’s “independence.”
These statements were made on the eve of the Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, at which the situation on the self-governing island is due to be discussed, among other items on the bilateral agenda.
President Trump, who is due to arrive in China on Wednesday evening (local time), has already announced that he will discuss arms sales to Taiwan during the visit.
“I will have this discussion with President Xi. President Xi would like us not to do this (sell arms to Taiwan), and I will have this discussion,” Donald Trump said on Monday in the Oval Office at the White House.
The US president made these remarks despite the fact that the longstanding US position, enshrined in the policy promoted during President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1982 and known as the “six assurances”, stipulates that Washington will not consult Beijing on its decisions regarding the sale of defensive arms to Taiwan.
For more than seven decades, the United States has been caught in the middle of disputes between China and Taiwan because Washington has a legal commitment to provide Taipei with the means necessary for self-defence and, although it does not maintain diplomatic relations with the island, could defend it in the event of a conflict with Beijing.
Washington authorised late last year the sale to Taipei of an arms package worth $11.1 billion, the largest ever acquired by Taipei to date.
Beyond this issue, Chinese President Xi Jinping may also use his meeting with his US counterpart to try to alter Washington’s official position on Taiwan, either by promoting a statement of “opposition” to Taiwanese independence or by seeking language more favourable to the Chinese position on “reunification.”
source – AGERPRES
