Blinken and Wang discuss Taiwan, China's support for Russia

By Simon Lewis

VIENTIANE (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington's concerns over Beijing's actions toward Taiwan and its support for Russia's war in Ukraine as he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Saturday.

Blinken, who earlier called out China for escalating maritime tensions with the Philippines, talked extensively with Wang about Taiwan and Beijing's recent "provocative" actions toward the democratically governed island, 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.

Blinken and Wang agreed to keep making progress on their countries' military-to-military ties, but did not discuss nuclear arms control talks, which China has halted in protest over Washington providing arms to Taiwan, the official said.

"In every discussion, Taiwan is the issue that they care most about. They see it as ... an internal China issue," said the official, who briefed reporters travelling with Blinken.

China's government considers Taiwan inviolable Chinese territory, which Taiwan rejects.

Wang told Blinken that Taiwan was part of China and "was not and will not be a country", and Beijing would counter provocations by forces advocating Taiwan's independence, according to a foreign ministry statement.

He said that though communication channels between China and the United States were open, Washington had intensified its efforts to contain and suppress Beijing.

"The risks facing Sino-U.S. relations are still accumulating and the challenges are rising and ties are at a critical juncture of halting their decline and achieving stability," Wang said.

'NO COMMITMENT' ON RUSSIA SUPPORT

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 sign of improvement in strained relations between the world's two biggest economies.

The two did not set a date for their next meeting, the official said.

Blinken is touring East Asia in a bid to reassure countries close to China of U.S. commitment, despite political uncertainty at home. He travelled to Vietnam later on Saturday and was set to hold security talks alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Japan and the Philippines in the coming days.

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 and warned of further U.S. actions if China does not curtail that, according to the official.

Washington has levied sanctions at targets including China-based companies selling semiconductors to Moscow, as part of an effort to undercut the Russian military machine waging war on Ukraine.

"There was no commitment by the Chinese to take action," 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.

The two also discussed a recent agreement between Palestinian factions brokered by Beijing, the official said, casting doubt on how effective that deal could be at settling the bitter rivalry between Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, which ran the Gaza strip before it launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 sparking the current bloodshed.

"We've seen a number of purported reconciliations before that have not proven to bear fruit," the official said.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by Simon Lewis and Martin Petty, Editing by William Maclean, Giles Elgood and Andrew Heavens)