China’s Xi pressed Biden to alter language on Taiwan, sources say

WASHINGTON/BEIJING/TAIPEI - Chinese President Xi Jinping asked US President Joe Biden in 2023 to change the language the US uses when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence, according to two US officials familiar with the private conversation.

During November 2023’s Biden-Xi meeting near San Francisco, Mr Xi and his aides asked Mr Biden and his team to tweak the language in US official statements.

China wanted the US to say “we oppose Taiwan independence”, rather than the current version, which is that the US “does not support” independence for Taiwan, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about private diplomatic exchanges they participated in or were briefed on.

Mr Xi’s aides have repeatedly followed up and made the requests in the months since, according to two US officials and another person familiar with the exchanges.

The US has declined to make the change.

The White House responded to a request for comment with a statement that repeated the line that Washington does not support Taiwan independence.

“The Biden-Harris administration has been consistent on our longstanding ‘one China’ policy,” the statement read.

China’s Foreign Ministry said: “You should ask this question to the US government. China’s position on the Taiwan issue is clear and consistent.”

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined comment.

The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.

The Republic of China remains Taiwan’s formal name and the government says it has no plans to change that, given it is already a sovereign, independent state and Beijing has no right to claim Taiwan as its own.

For several years, Chinese diplomats have pushed the US to make changes to how it refers to Taiwan’s status, which remains the most sensitive area in US-China relations.

The unusually direct and renewed push at the leader level has not been reported previously.

The US severed official relations with the government in Taipei in 1979 but is bound by law to provide democratically governed Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

It was not clear why Mr Xi chose to raise the issue with Mr Biden, but he has made opposition to Taiwan independence a focus of his time in office, and China’s military has significantly ramped up its activities around the island in recent years.

The Biden administration regards the proposed language change as a non-starter.

Taiwan was briefed on the recent overtures at a high level by Washington, said one of the sources.

Leaders in Beijing “would love it if Joe Biden said very different things about Taiwan than he says, no doubt”, said one senior Biden administration official, adding that Mr Biden would stick with the standard US formulation for talking about Taiwan independence.

During his time in office, Mr Biden has upset the Chinese government with comments that appeared to suggest the US would defend the island if it were attacked, a deviation from a long-held US position of “strategic ambiguity”.

A change that would reverberate

A change by the US to say that it opposes Taiwanese independence would reverberate through the trade-rich Asia Pacific and with US partners, competitors and adversaries alike.

Officials from two governments in the region told Reuters they would interpret any such change in wording as a change in US policy towards less support for Taipei’s defence and diplomatic aspirations at a time when Beijing has ramped up military pressure.

China has over the past five years staged almost daily military activities around Taiwan.

Earlier in October, Beijing held a day of war games using what Taiwan said was a record 153 military aircraft as part of drills simulating blockading ports and assaulting maritime and ground targets.

Any switch in language could also be seen signalling a shift in US policy from supporting the resolution of Taiwan’s future through peaceful talks to one suggesting the US stands against Taiwanese aspirations regardless of the circumstances at play.

Opinion polls in Taiwan show most people support maintaining the status quo, seeking to neither join China nor establish a new state.

In 2022, the State Department changed its website on Taiwan, removing wording both on not supporting Taiwan independence and on acknowledging Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, which angered the Chinese.

It later restored the language on not supporting independence for the island.

The two leaders are expected to speak again before Mr Biden’s term in office ends in January, talks that may come by phone or on the sidelines of November’s Group of 20 summit in Brazil or Apec summit in Peru.

Apec is one of few international forums that both Taiwan and China take part in.

The Democratic President will hand over the tense Taiwan issue to his successor, Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris or Republican former president Donald Trump, following the Nov 5 election. REUTERS