Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, Lin Chia-lung, said today that relations with the United States “are very stable” and assured that Washington will not abandon the island.
“There is no fear of betrayal by the United States,” said Lin, quoted by local television SETN, stressing that ties between Taipei and Washington are based on the Law on Relations with Taiwan, the Six Guarantees and close cooperation in the fields of security and economy.
The US is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and a potential ally for the island in the event of a conflict with China.which considers Taiwan an “inalienable” part of its territory.
The statements come on the eve of the meeting between North American President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, confirmed only by the White House, on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, and in which the leaders are expected to discuss the Taiwan Strait and bilateral trade tensions.
On Sunday night, the Chinese press revealed that several units of the Chinese Air Force carried out “real combat” exercises around the islandto test reconnaissance, early warning, air jamming and precision strike capabilities.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry today accused Beijing of trying to “intimidate” public opinion on the island, denouncing the released images, which show nuclear-capable H-6K bombers, as a “type of cognitive manipulation.”
The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Taiwan “shouldn’t worry” about the talks between Trump and Xi.
“What people are worried about is that we get a favorable trade deal in exchange for abandoning Taiwan. Nobody is considering that,” said Rubio.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government today accused Taiwanese authorities of “using various forums to spread fallacies about the island’s independence and separatism”, in an attempt to “distort the truth and confuse public opinion”.
“No matter what they do or say, they cannot change the historical and legal fact that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory, nor stop the historical trend of China’s reunification,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun.
Guo declared that “the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait lies in separatist activities” and “collusion with external forces”, in a veiled allusion to the United States.