Ahead of G20 summit, China warns US against sharing details of Xi-Biden meet with Taiwan

Ahead of G20 Summit, China has warned the US against disclosing details of upcoming meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden with Taiwan. The warning was issued after comments by Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan, who said that after Jinping and Biden meet, details of how that meeting went will be shared with Taiwan. China claimed that it violates diplomatic protocol. Jinping and Biden are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of G20 summit. This will be their first to first meeting as head of their respective states, although both have met before when they were serving their nation as vice president. The duo are expected to discuss Taiwan and US import restrictions on semiconductor technology. 

“What the US said about briefing Taiwan on the meeting between the Chinese and the US heads of state gravely violates the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques. This is truly egregious, and China firmly rejects this,” said Zhao Lijian, who is the spokesperson of China's foreign ministry. The spokesperson for China's foreign ministry went on to add that any official interaction between US and Taiwan violates the One-China principle. “There is only one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory. The root cause of the tensions in the Taiwan Strait is that the Taiwan authorities have been soliciting US support to seek ‘Taiwan independence’, and that some people in the US intend to use the Taiwan question to contain China," claimed Zhao Lijian.  "It is moves like this that are undermining the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," he added.

Tensions around Taiwan Strait escalate

In recent months, tensions across the Taiwan Strait have escalated, especially after China conducted military exercises close to the island, in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit. Pelosi was the first Speaker of US to visit Taiwan since the late 90s, when Newt Gingrich visited the island. It is worth noting that the US does not accept the One China principle and has never accepted it. 

The US accepts the One China policy, which is different from the One China principle. It is also worth mentioning that the Communist Party of China has never controlled or governed the island of Taiwan in any way. After the end of the Chinese civil war between Mao's communists and Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalists, the nationalists migrated to Taiwan and began governing the island. 

The island was originally known as Formosa, which translates into 'beautiful island'. The Portuguese named the island Formosa. For a significant period of history, Taiwan was under the control of the Japanese. Taiwan is also not an island where just Han Chinese reside, though that is often the impression, the island has a significant number of people who belong to the indigenous tribe and the current President of Taiwan is one such person.