In a move aiming at easing the tension between the two super-powers, the Biden administration’s key advisor held a telephone conversation with China’s top diplomat last week, sources said.
It was not known what the important figures of the world’s superpowers discussed. Sources familiar with the development said the telephone call was done under the pretext of the upcoming stop-over of Taiwan’s President in the US. Taiwan’s President is scheduled to embark on a 10-day visit to Central America this week. What is most important is that he will make a brief stop-over in the US and deliver a speech in Hudson Institute.
Sources have confirmed to The Islamabad Telegraph that the President of Taiwan will deliver a speech in New York where arrangements have been finalized by the Hudson Institute on March 30, 2023. The Taiwanese President will also deliver a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on her return to Asia in April.
Since the US doesn’t recognize Taiwan as an independent state hence, Taiwanese Present can not undertake a State visit. However, two sides have been arranging unofficial and “transit stops” to interact with each other. The ‘transit stops’ have increased in recent years following the US-China tussle in the South China Sea.
Sources confirmed to The Islamabad Telegraph that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan held a telephone conversation with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi last week on Friday to ease tensions that have continued to build in recent months.
When contacted, spokespersons of the governments of the US and China did not confirm the development. However, neither side denied it. Sources, however, insisted a brief conversation was held last week.
Well-placed sources also revealed that the Biden administration’s top officials were in contact with the higher Chinese authorities to make a telephone call possible at the earliest between Biden and President XI as the two sides are desperately looking to diffuse the tension between the two superpowers.
Recently, bilateral relations between the two countries have deteriorated as the U.S. and China have clashed over everything from trade to technology and the South China Sea.
Two sides have been trying to mend the ties. However, a number of events including the banning of the Chinese tech companies by the US administration have played out across the relationship, making meetings at almost every level either politically impossible or far more fraught.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had canceled an important visit to China after the U.S. revealed that an alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US. Days later, China rebuffed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s effort to speak with his Chinese counterpart after the U.S. shot down the balloon.
Prompted by these events, China’s defense attache in Washington recently declined a request for a lunch meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Chase. This showed, even low-level contacts are not happening.
