US Turns Down Xi’s Demand to Alter Diplomatic Language over Taiwan

By Yangchen Lhamu

DHARAMSALA, 1 Nov: China’s President Xi Jinping has asked US President Joe Biden to change Washington’s diplomatic language over Taiwan’s independence last year, with Xi’s aides repeatedly following up, but the White House has turned down the request. 

“Xi and his aides asked Biden and his team to tweak the language in the US official statements” when “discussing its position on Taiwanese independence” during last November’s Biden-Xi meeting near San Francisco, Reuters reported, citing two US officials familiar with the matter.

The US officials have reportedly said that China wanted the US to change its diplomatic language over Taiwan’s Independence from “does not support” to outright declaring “we oppose Taiwan independence,” the report added, citing the US officials.

The White House has turned down the request and said in a statement that “The Biden-Harris administration has been consistent on our long-standing One China policy.”

According to the report, it was not clear why Xi made the request, but he has made opposition to Taiwan’s independence a focus of his time in office while China continues to significantly ramp up its military activities around the island in recent years.

Taiwan has been reportedly informed of China’s overtures at a high level by Washington.

Although the US severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, it continues to provide defence support. Meanwhile, China asserts sovereignty over Taiwan, considering it part of its territory, and reserves the right to use force for reunification.

Beijing claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its own and views it as a wayward province to be reunified with China by force if necessary.

Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops fled to the island after losing China’s civil war to Mao’s Communist Party.