Taiwan in security talks with Biden’s officials in Washington

The meetings come after Xi Jinping told the US President he would take ‘drastic actions’ if he felt provoked on Taiwan.

Xi Jinping is beamed down in Beijing during his virtual summit with Joe Biden on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Senior Taiwanese security officials are meeting with the Biden administration after China’s President Xi Jinping told the US President he would take “drastic actions” if he felt provoked by the island democracy.

The high-level, two day security discussions in Washington – held on Wednesday and Thursday (AEST) – follow months of military threats by Beijing towards the self-governed island.

Senior Taiwanese security officials confirmed the talks, which they said had been arranged long before the meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Biden.

“This shows that the United States is promoting the strategic co-operation between the United States and Taiwan in a more holistic way,” the Taipei-based Liberty Times reported, citing an official from Taiwan’s National Security Council.

Despite warm opening remarks between the leaders of the world’s two most powerful countries, their meeting on Tuesday (AEST) revealed the increasing strains on the status quo that has allowed Taiwan’s peaceful development into a thriving democracy – much to the fury of Beijing.

Capitals around the world – from Canberra to Tokyo to London to Washington – are increasingly worried about Mr Xi’s aggressive claims, which he repeated in his meeting with Mr Biden.

“Whoever plays with fire will get burnt,” Mr Xi said. “We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts.

“That said, should the separatist forces for Taiwan independence provoke us, force our hands or even cross the red line, we will be compelled to take resolute measures.”

On the day of their meeting, another eight of China’s People’s Liberation Army jets flew near Taiwan’s southwest coast.

Mr Biden told Mr Xi that America remains committed to its “one China” policy, which acknowledges – but does not recognise – China’s claims for Taiwan.

America’s “one China” policy allows it to diplomatically recognise Beijing, while also maintaining a robust unofficial relationship with Taiwan, including helping it defend itself.

Speaking after the leaders meeting, Mr Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Taiwan’s security was a key concern for the administration.

“Ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, having clear communication, avoiding miscommunication, is going to be an important and intensive aspect of work between our militaries, our national security councils and between our diplomats,” Mr Sullivan told an audience at the Brookings Institution.

“So you will see at multiple levels an intensification of the engagement to ensure that there are guardrails around this competition so that it doesn’t veer off into conflict.”

Mr Sullivan said Mr Biden had told Mr Xi at Tuesday’s meeting that he had voted for the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979, when he was a senator.

The TRA – which Beijing has protested about since its passage – says Washington would “consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States”. It has been the bedrock of America’s policy of “strategic ambiguity”, giving a path for the U.S.’s military to support Taiwan in response to Chinese aggression.

Mr Xi – China’s most dominant leader since Mao Zedong – has made clear his unhappiness with the current arrangement.

He has only become more strident as polls find most Taiwanese think of themselves as independent from China and do not want to be governed by the Chinese Communist Party.

On Wednesday, the party released the “historical resolution” passed last week by Mr Xi and his comrades. The politically significant document – which Mr Xi oversaw and voted for – elevated the Chinese President’s status within the party’s pantheon and said his strong man rule had been essential for the party’s recent achievements, including its crackdown on Hong Kong.

It also underscored the party’s dogmatic insistence on taking over Taiwan – irrespective of the wishes of its 23 million people.

“Resolving the Taiwan question and realising China’s complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakeable commitment of the party. It is also a shared aspiration of all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, and it is essential to realising national rejuvenation.”

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