TAIPEI, April 12 (Reuters) – The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan said China should abandon its threats and military pressure against Taiwan and talk to the island’s leaders as that would avoid misunderstandings and stabilise relations. Raymond Greene, the de facto ambassador as head of the American Institute in Taiwan, which handles relations in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, said the consistent U.S. policy has been to support exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
He was discussing the visit of Taiwan’s opposition leader to China on a Taiwanese political talk show on Saturday. “However, we also expect China – Beijing – to maintain open communication channels with all of Taiwan’s political parties, especially the leaders elected by the Taiwanese people, in order to avoid misunderstandings and to stabilise cross-strait relations,” Greene said in Mandarin.
“We further expect China to abandon threats against Taiwan or military pressure. I believe this would help ease cross-strait tensions.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Beijing refuses to speak to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a “separatist”, but Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday met Cheng Li-wun, nL1N40T02P chairwoman of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang, during what she called a mission of peace to China.
The Chinese military operates daily nL4N40U03W around Taiwan, activities that have continued nL4N40R0A6 while Cheng has been in China.
Taiwan’s opposition, which has a majority in parliament, has stalled government military spending plans, including an extra $40 billion special defence budget which has provisions to buy U.S. weapons and which Washington has backed.
Despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier and international backer.
Greene said that while the U.S. supports dialogue, that cannot replace deterrence.
“I don’t think there is a conflict here, because if there is sufficient deterrence capability, it will lead to a more equal dialogue,” he added.
“There are three ways to resolve cross-strait differences: the first is dialogue, the second is coercion and the third is war. So if Taiwan can have sufficient deterrence capability, it can take the option of war off the table.”
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by William Mallard)
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