TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will closely follow developments from the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平), Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Monday (Nov. 13).
When asked about the high-profile meeting at this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Wu said that Taiwan's overseas missions have always closely monitored such matters, Liberty Times reported. Wu said he expected the two leaders to bring up Taiwan during their discussion.
He added that Taiwan is always part of bilateral talks between the U.S. and China. There should be no doubt about America’s support for Taiwan, he said.
The White House has confirmed that the talks will take place in San Francisco on the sidelines of the APEC summit, which runs from Nov. 15-17. This will be their second in-person meeting in three years, the last time being at the G20 summit in Bali.
Neither side is expecting to make any significant breakthrough, but rather they intend to make sure there is no miscommunication about maintaining stable ties. “The meeting will be about managing and stabilizing the bilateral relationship, improving communication, and reducing misunderstandings before they occur,” CNN quoted Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as saying.
U.S.-China relations are currently strained due to disagreements on human rights issues, territorial claims in the South China Sea, and Taiwan.
Last month, Cynthia Carras, the Pentagon’s principal director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia affairs, represented the U.S. Defense Department at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing. The Pentagon said in a statement that it “welcomes the opportunity to engage with (People’s Liberation Army) representatives at the Xiangshan Forum on ensuring open and reliable lines of communication, ensuring crisis communications channels, reducing strategic and operational risk, and avoiding misperceptions.”
China abruptly halted military exchanges after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August.
