US officials stress peace in Strait in talks with China

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink on Monday stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait during a meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing.

Kritenbrink met with Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭), as well as with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Qiu Kaiming (仇開明), the US Department of State said in a statement on the visit from Sunday to yesterday.

The officials, including US National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs Sarah Beran and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, discussed bilateral, regional and global issues, including the Middle East, China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base, cross-strait issues, the South China Sea and North Korea, the department said.

“The assistant secretary and senior director underscored the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and reiterated there has been no change to the US ‘one China’ policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques and the six assurances,” the department said.

“The visit builds on recent highlevel diplomacy with the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to manage areas of difference as well as areas of cooperation, while reducing the risk of miscalculation,” it said.

The statement gave few details of the talks.

The meetings come ahead of president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration next month, and after the US hosted summits last week with Japan and the Philippines that focused on pushing back against China in the South China Sea and elsewhere.