TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken told top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) in a phone call Friday (Feb. 5) that China will be held accountable for threats against Taiwan.

According to a State Department readout, the Biden Administration official emphasized that Washington would “stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong.”

Blinken added the U.S. would work together with its allies to defend shared values, while China would be held accountable “for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system.”

China has welcomed the advent of the Biden administration, hoping for improved ties, though it has continued to lambast U.S. criticism of widespread human rights violations. In the phone conversation with Yang, Blinken also asked China to join international condemnation of the Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar, a close Beijing ally.