[NY Post] Good thing they've made "political investments", right? Treason and bribery by any other nameChinese President Xi Jinping warned President Biden last month that he intends to end Taiwan’s decades-long de facto independence — peacefully, if possible.
Xi told the 81-year-old commander-in-chief that "Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided," NBC News reported Wednesday, citing three current and former US officials briefed on the meeting.
The White House didn’t deny the exchange, which occurred during a Nov. 15 summit outside San Francisco that was attended by a dozen US and Chinese officials.
"I’m not gonna get into the specifics of the discussion between the two leaders," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One en route to Milwaukee. "I think you can understand I’m not gonna read out that private conversation."
"President Xi has been public and clear about his desires for reunification — that’s not something that’s different or new," Kirby added.
The White House spokesperson went on to say that the US will continue to adhere to its "One China" policy of not recognizing Taiwan as independent and added that "as the president has said, there’s no reason for this to come to blows."
At the summit, Xi said that "China’s preference is to take Taiwan peacefully, not by force," and said that "US military leaders who say that Xi plans to take Taiwan in 2025 or 2027 ... were wrong because he has not set a time frame," NBC reported.
The so-called Chinese "president for life" and Biden met for four hours and US readouts of the talks didn’t mention any notable updates regarding Taiwan, which has been self-governing since the 1949 victory of Mao Zedong’s Communists in the Chinese civil war.
Biden said last year that US troops would defend Taiwan if it was threatened by Beijing.
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