Joe Biden, president of the United States of America
Biden-Xi, the American president speaks: “We are not encouraging Taiwan independence”
While the president of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping continues his march to the motherland, confirming helmsman of China, after Mao Zedong, the US president Joe Biden, after yesterday’s virtual interview, he was forced to clarify an ambiguous statement on his Taiwan, one of the “hot” topics on the US-China political agenda. The offending sentence: “The island is independent and makes its own decisions”. Words that risked arousing the wrath of China. US President Joe Biden then specified: “The United States is not encouraging Taiwan’s independence”.
“We will not change our policy at all,” he said speaking to reporters. “I said, he clarified, that they have to decide, that is Taiwan. And we’re not encouraging independence, we’re promoting them doing exactly what the Taiwan Act. This is what we do. Let them make a decision. “
The Taiwan Relations Act is a law adopted in 1979 by the American Congress, which establishes American policy towards the island. The law provides that Washington is committed to recognizing only one China, but at the same time it supplies arms to Taiwan for his self-defense. The president of the United States has tried to clarify his position on the island in this way.
However, the attempt at clarification did not dispel the ambiguity: And the third time that Biden sIt appears to express more resolute support for Taipei’s cause of independence.
Last month, a reporter who asked him if the US would intervene in defense of Taiwan against the China, had replied: “Yes, we have a commitment”, a comment similar to another released last August. In both cases, the White House made it clear that the US position had not changed.
Washington provides help to Taipei to strengthen its self-defense capabilities but has always maintained an attitude of declared “strategic ambiguity” on the possible response to a possible Chinese invasion of the island. Biden he further explained to reporters that he stressed that although the US Navy will keep clear of Chinese territorial waters, it will insist on the right of access to the South China Sea. On this point “we will not be intimidated”, assured the president of the United States.
Biden-Xi, Security Advisor Sullivan: “We are ready for discussion on gun control”
After virtual interview (here the full report), the American president Joe Biden and the Chinese one Xi Jinping they would have reached a agreement to initiate dialogue on possible arms control. Confirmation comes from Security Advisor Jack Sullivan. Biden and Xi would be “ready to open a discussion” on nuclear power and missiles, Sullivan explained during a webinar organized by the Brookings Institute. Beijing would be ready to start bilateral agreements with the US and Russia on the basis of the principle of “equality and mutual respect”.
US-China progress on easing restrictions for journalists
News also on the information front: the US State Department reported that there are “some early progress” in the negotiations between Washington e Beijing for theeasing of restrictions on the work of journalists. In 2020, China had expelled the correspondents of some major American newspapers – including New York Times, Wall Street Journal e Washington Post – and the US had reacted with countermeasures against the Chinese newspapers, accused of being the propaganda organs of the government.
A department official explained that the China “has pledged to issue visas to a number of US journalists, as long as they are entitled to them based on existing laws and regulations” and promised to “allow journalists Usa already in China to leave and return freely, something that was previously prevented from them. “China has also extended the validity of visas for American reporters. The US will respond with similar measures.
“We welcome these advances but see them as simple first steps“the official said, adding that Washington will continue to push for” expanding access and improving conditions for US and other foreign media. “The department, the official concluded, believes these measures, taken after the videoconference between the US president Joe Biden and the Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, will allow American reporters to return to China “to continue their important work”.