U.S Secretary of State Blinken meets Asian diplomats

As the Biden administration works to reduce tensions over Taiwan during the island’s presidential election, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with a senior Chinese ambassador.

Report states Blinken had a meeting with Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, who happens to be one of the US’s most powerful friends in Asia.

The Biden administration is seeking to keep down tensions in the Taiwan Strait if the governing Democratic Progressive Party, known to lean toward independence, should prevail in Saturday’s election.

Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory, has suggested to voters that they could be choosing between peace and war.

Report says the US is not supporting any candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election and plans to send an unofficial delegation to the island shortly after the election.

In addition to Taiwan, Blinken, and Kamikawa discussed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and preparation for a state visit by Japan’s prime minister to the US, possibly in early March, according to the news site Japan Today.

Liu’s meeting with Blinken was part of a U.S trip that took the veteran Chinese diplomat to New York earlier this week when he said Beijing is serious about the US statements not to support Taiwan’s independence.

Meanwhile, Beijing has slammed Washington for supplying the island with weapons that it says could embolden those seeking Taiwan’s independence.

The US has a security pact with Taiwan to protect the island from any armed attack from the mainland, and any military conflict in the Taiwan Strait could draw in the U.S.

China remains firm in pursuing an independent foreign policy of peace and is committed to peaceful development, Liu said.

President Xi Jinping reaffirmed that China will not engage in a cold or hot war with anyone during his most recent visit to the United States.

Liu gave his listeners the reassurance that China has no intention of changing the global system.

Liu signaled that Beijing could move away from its “wolf-warrior” diplomacy that critics say has alienated China from the West.