U.S. does not support Taiwan independence, Rubio tells China’s Wang

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, a known China hawk, had his first phone call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Jan. 24. (Source photos by Reuters)
NIKKEI ASIA | Published January 25, 2025

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday that the U.S. “does not support” Taiwan independence and hopes to see the issue resolved peacefully in a way acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The statement, unveiled in a readout from China’s official Xinhua News Agency, was in line with the U.S. government’s long-held stance on the contentious issue and will ease Chinese concerns toward the new U.S. administration.

In the first exchange between the two top diplomats, Wang said that Taiwan has been part of China’s territory since ancient times and that “China will never allow Taiwan to be separated from the motherland,” according to the readout.

In the first exchange between the two top diplomats, Wang said that Taiwan has been part of China’s territory since ancient times and that “China will never allow Taiwan to be separated from the motherland,” according to the readout.

Wang, who is both foreign minister and a Politburo member, said the U.S. has made “solemn commitments” in three joint communiques to adhere to the “One China” policy and “should not go back on its word.”

In the three communiques of 1972, 1979 and 1982, the U.S. said it “acknowledges” the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China. Based on this position, the U.S. does not take a stance on the ultimate sovereignty of the island.

A U.S. State Department readout, issued hours later, did not include the exchange on Taiwan.

Rubio emphasized that the Trump administration will pursue a U.S.-China relationship “that advances U.S. interests and puts the American people first,” it said. “The Secretary also stressed the United States’ commitment to our allies in the region and serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea,” the State Department said.

According to the Chinese readout, Wang told Rubio that “China has no intention to overtake or replace any country, but must safeguard its legitimate rights to development.”

Wang cited the phone call between then-U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Jan. 17 — just days before Trump’s return to the White House — in which the two men “pointed out the direction and set the tone” for bilateral relations.

China and the U.S. should follow through on the “important consensus” reached by the two heads of state and “find the right way to get along in the new era,” Wang said.

Rubio said that the U.S. and China are two great nations and that their relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century and will determine the future of the world, according to Xinhua.

The U.S. is willing to communicate candidly with Beijing and manage bilateral relations in a mature and prudent manner, he said.

Trump said Thursday that the Jan. 17 call was made by the Chinese side and went well. “I think that we’re going to have a very good relationship,” he told the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, via video link.

“All we want is fairness,” Trump said. “We just want a level playing field. We don’t want to take advantage,” he said, noting that his focus was to reduce the U.S.’s “massive deficits” with China in trade.

Rush Doshi, former deputy senior director for China and Taiwan on then-President Joe Biden’s National Security Council, told Nikkei Asia that Wang’s insistence that China “must safeguard its legitimate rights to development” was a response to the previous U.S. administration’s policies on China.

“China views any action to protect U.S. interests — from export controls to tariffs to restrictions on outbound investment — as an infringement on its legitimate right to development,” said Doshi, now at Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

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SOURCE: www.asia.nikkei.com

RELATED: What did Rubio say about Taiwan independence? US, China at odds

A certain detail is conspicuously absent from State Department’s account of a phone call reportedly made at the top American envoy’s request

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST | Published January 25, 2025

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday, affirming Washington does not back Taiwan independence, according to China’s foreign ministry, a detail omitted from the American side’s read-out.

“The United States does not support ‘Taiwan independence’ and hopes that the Taiwan issue will be peacefully resolved in a way accepted by both sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Rubio said in a call that he requested, according to Beijing’s foreign ministry.

However, in the State Department’s telling, Rubio “stressed the United States’ commitment to our allies in the region and serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea”.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.

Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons, as authorised by the Taiwan Relations Act.

The State Department and Beijing’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for clarification about the differing accounts of what was said about Taiwan.

 

The call marks the first direct contact Rubio has had with Beijing after a string of one-to-one engagements with counterparts throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including those in Japan and the Philippines.

In both those cases, their joint statements warned of a need to counter China’s “destabilising actions” in the region.

In its read-out of Rubio’s call with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, also on Friday, the State Department said they “discussed regional concerns to include China’s aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea”.

Friday’s calls follow one held a week prior between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping – days before the American leader was inaugurated for his second term.

 

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SOURCE: www.scmp.com

 

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