< p>According to media reports, Xi Jinping warned Biden about "reunification" Taiwan with China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told United States President Joe Biden during their recent summit in San Francisco that Beijing ” will reunite Taiwan with mainland China, but the timing has not yet been determined.
NBC News writes about this with reference to the words of three current and former American officials.
Xi Jinping allegedly told the head of the White House that China prefers to reunify Taiwan by peaceful means, not by force.
According to sources, the Chinese leader, in a conversation with Biden, commented on public forecasts by US military leaders claiming that Xi plans to seize Taiwan in 2025 or 2027. Xi Jinping said they were wrong because he had not yet set a time frame.
Chinese officials also asked ahead of the summit that Biden make a public statement after the meeting, saying the United States supports China's goal of peaceful unification with Taiwan and does not support Taiwanese independence. The White House rejected China's request.
Public sources familiar with the conversation between Biden and Xi described the Chinese leader as direct and frank, but not confrontational.
The journalists' interlocutors claim that Xi told Biden and other US officials that “the issue of Taiwan remains the most important and sensitive issue in relations between Beijing and Washington.” He called on the United States to “support China's peaceful reunification” and assured that “China will achieve reunification and it cannot be stopped.”
“His speech was no different from what he always said. He was always tough on Taiwan. He always took a hard line,” said a US official on condition of anonymity.
“Xi's saber-waving over Taiwan is a major concern for Biden administration officials as they aggressively try to avoid military conflict with China,” the article's authors note.
Let us recall that the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping took place on November 15 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
According to media reports, at this meeting, Xi Jinping and Biden agreed to resume high-level military ties.
At the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the meeting of leaders in San Francisco marks a turning point in relations with the United States.
TSN.ua collected a review of the Western press about the results and key messages of the meeting of the two most influential leaders in the world.
Why Taiwan and China are at war: historical background
Taiwan and surrounding islands are controlled in part by the recognized Republic of China. The PRC claims its rights to the island, from whose point of view Taiwan is part of the administrative unit of China of the same name.
In 1949, having suffered defeat in the Civil War from the troops of Mao Zedong, the head of the government of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, fled to Taiwan. His Kuomintang party, administration and parliament moved there with him.
In 1971, the Republic of China gave way to the UN to the People's Republic of China – since then, the UN and most of the world community have officially recognized the jurisdiction of the Communist-led PRC over both mainland China and Taiwan.
The confrontation between the PRC and the Republic of China has repeatedly led to armed clashes. Official Beijing considers the Taiwanese authorities to be separatists. Taipei initially did not recognize the power of the Communist Party and claimed to resume its control over all of China. Although in recent decades, the Taiwanese authorities have no longer declared such claims, trying to at least defend the sovereignty of the island.
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