US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday reiterated decades of US policy towards Taiwan when he said the US does not support a declaration of independence by the government on that island, which the People’s Republic of China considers a rogue province.
Mr Blinken’s statement came during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at which the top US diplomat and the Chinese strongman attempted to smooth over months of tension between Washington and Beijing. A previously scheduled trip to China by the US secretary of state had been cancelled in the wake of the February shootdown of a spy balloon that US intelligence has said belonged to the PRC.
