US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gestures before departing from the airport in Vientiane on July 27, 2024 after attending the 57th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting. (Photo by Achmad Ibrahim / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ACHMAD IBRAHIM/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)ACHMAD IBRAHIM/Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked extensively with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about Taiwan on Saturday and raised concerns about Beijing’s recent “provocative actions”, a senior U.S. State Department official said.
Those actions included a simulated blockade during the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, the official said, adding that Blinken and Wang agreed to keep making progress on their countries’ military-to-military ties.
“In every discussion, Taiwan is the issue that they care most about. They see it as ... an internal China issue, so he (Wang Yi) always has a fair bit to say about Taiwan, as they always have a fair bit to say publicly,” the official said.
China’s government considers democratically ruled Taiwan as inviolable Chinese territory, which Taiwan rejects.
The two talked for one hour, 20 minutes on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos, in their sixth meeting since June 2023, when Blinken visited Beijing in a significant sign of improvement in strained relations between the world’s two biggest economies.
China’s foreign ministry had no immediate statement on the latest meeting.
Blinken conveyed to Wang that U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, both believed in the importance of stability in the U.S.-China relationship, and that a rules-based order must be upheld, the official added.
Blinken also discussed China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base, but received no commitment from Wang, according to the official.
“The secretary raised concerns and did say again that we've taken actions, and we'll continue to take them if we don’t see appropriate actions on your side,” the official said.
Blinken also raised with Wang U.S. concerns over human rights in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet, and stressed the need for more progress from Beijing on counter narcotics including fentanyl precursors coming out of China.
Blinken “raised a number of specific law enforcement actions, as well as additional scheduling of precursors that China could take,” the official said.