Blinken’s Message Could Embolden China to Make a Move Against Taiwan: Expert

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s message during his trip to China this week could embolden China to make a move against Taiwan, according to Michael Sekora, founder and director of Project Socrates, a U.S. intelligence community program established under the Reagan White House.

After he met with Xi Jinping in Beijing on June 19, Blinken told reporters that he had a “robust conversation” with the Chinese leader and other top diplomats, ending a two-day trip.

While Blinken and Xi both expressed a willingness to continue the communication, there’s little indication that the Chinese regime is prepared to bend from its positions on issues such as Taiwan.

Blinken said at a June 19 press meeting that the United States will continue to advocate its “One China” policy, under which Washington officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei.

However, Blinken noted that the Taiwan Relations Act makes clear that the U.S. decision to establish diplomatic ties with China instead of Taiwan rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.

“On Taiwan, I reiterated a longstanding U.S. ‘One China’ policy. That policy has not changed. It’s guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, three Joint Communiqués, the Six Assurances. We do not support Taiwan independence. We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution to cross-state differences,” he said.

“We and many others have deep concerns about some of the provocative actions that China has taken in recent years, going back to 2016,” he told reporters. “The reason that this is a concern for so many countries, not just the United States, is that, were there to be a crisis over Taiwan, the likelihood is that that would produce an economic crisis that could affect quite literally the entire world.”

According to Sekora, Blinken’s message means that the Biden administration supports communist China’s unification of Taiwan as long as it does not resort to military action.

“So they’re sitting on the fence, and they’re giving China just a little more maneuvering room to move things forward,” Sekora told “China in Focus” on NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

“In many ways, this administration has backed down from a strong position on defending Taiwan.”

Weak China Policy

According to Sekora, the fact that the Biden administration had repeatedly asked Beijing to reestablish normal communications sparked concern among Americans as they see it as a weak China policy and are concerned about the impact on U.S. allies.

“They’re looking for a strong leadership to push back on China. They don’t see the pushback on China, number 1, and the second thing is, which is just as damning, is that there’s a lot of concern about what’s going on with our allies.

“And those people who are not necessarily an ally, but they’re not adversarial, and they’re sitting on the fence … I’ve been told by some of the countries that we deal with, they’re looking at the U.S. on the decline, and China on the rise,” he said.

The U.S. weakness would have a bad impact on allies’ decisions on which side to support, Sekora said.

“If they [allies] see the United States in a very weak position, and not willing to push it, they’re [allies] siding more with China, not necessarily with getting in bed with them, as they say, but rather not perturbing them [China] in any way,” he said.

“Americans see that because we know that so much of America’s strength always comes from our allies, Australia, Europeans, places like that. And if we see that these people are pulling further and further away from us, that makes most Americans more and more nervous about the future with China,” he added.

‘Stand Strong Against China’

Sekora urged the United States “to defend democracy … defend the countries who are willing to not bow to China’s pressure.”

“And that includes all the various countries. And as we know, for the longest time, China was very soft in their approach to these countries, but now it’s getting harder in terms of making more demands on the sites they’ve gotten in terms of the various locations for deployment, and they’re pushing harder and harder. And America needs to be able to stand strong against China,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.

Dorothy Li and Frank Fang contributed to this report.