US risks triggering a crisis with Taiwan card

This is an editorial from China Daily.

To serve its needs to instigate geopolitical competition against China and contain China's rise and development, the United States is fond of playing the "Taiwan card".

The current administration being no exception.

On Friday, speaking at the Reuters Next conference, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the Chinese mainland has been trying to "change the status quo over self-ruled Taiwan", and that the United States is "resolutely committed" to making sure that the island has the means to defend itself.

Such words are intended to mislead and confuse the international community. The island is an inalienable part of China, and it is the US whose words and deeds may lead to "terrible consequences" as they are emboldening the secessionists on the island to such an extent they may throw caution to the wind.

The top US diplomat cannot be so ignorant as not to know the fact that a total of 180 countries, the US included, recognize Taiwan as an inseparable part of China. He cannot be unaware that US President Joe Biden pledged in a video summit last month with President Xi Jinping that the US adheres to the three communiques that set out the US' commitment to the one-China policy.

In fact, Blinken himself has also reaffirmed on more than one occasion the US commitment to the one-China principle. Yet to serve the purpose of using the Chinese island as a chess piece in the US' competition playbook against China, Blinken has resorted to talking out of both sides of his mouth depending on who his audience is.

Recognizing the fact that Taiwan is an integral part of China is the political foundation of China-US relations as well as a policy upheld by successive US administrations since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties. Blinken and other US officials must recognize the sensitivity of the Taiwan question and its gravity in China-US ties.

Biden has said the US has no intention to have a conflict with China and neither does it support "Taiwan independence". But from landing military aircraft in Taiwan and sending warships through the Taiwan Straits and instigating high-profile visits to the Chinese island, Washington has upped the ante on its strategic competition against Beijing with total disregard for peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits.

Given the Biden administration's constant escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Straits, it risks precipitating a crisis that would be in no one's interests, including the US.

The national reunification of China is a historical trend and inevitability that no forces can resist. The US has made unprecedented "breakthroughs" in breaching the one-China principle through playing various strategic and political games. It should be warned that by continually trying to bend China's bottom line on the Taiwan question it risks eventually breaking it. And that would indeed have terrible consequences.