Beijing Has No Room to Compromise on Taiwan, China’s Top Envoy Says
- Ambassador says Taiwan is biggest issue in China-US relations
- Still he sees many areas for Beijing, Washington to cooperate
Xie Feng
Photographer: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The rhetoric between Beijing and Taipei is heating up ahead of Taiwan’s presidential election on Saturday, even as relations between the US and China more broadly show signs of stabilization.
A virtual event in Atlanta on Tuesday demonstrated China’s dilemma in seeking to assert its sovereignty over Taiwan while keeping a lid on tensions with the US. Xie Feng, Beijing’s top envoy in Washington, repeated the Communist Party’s longstanding view in calling advocacy of Taiwan independence “as incompatible with peace of the Strait as fire with water” while saying “the Chinese government simply has no room for compromise.”