By Bloomberg News
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for strengthening economic ties with Taiwan just before heading to the US for talks with President Joe Biden, comments that contrast with the fiery rhetoric he has used about the island in the past.
Xi urged more efforts “to facilitate economic exchanges and cooperation and promote integrated development in all areas across the strait,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Entrepreneurs should help “promote the peaceful and integrated development of relations between the two countries and realize the reunification of China and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said in a letter sent to the business leaders in Nanjing on Tuesday.
The comments underscore efforts by China and the US to defuse tensions in their troubled relationship. They also come after Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that he doubts Beijing’s plans to try to take control of Taiwan by force.
Taiwan’s status is one of the most controversial aspects of China-US relations. In a 2021 speech marking the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, Xi called Beijing’s quest to gain control of Taiwan a “historic mission.” He said attempts by other countries to bully China “will certainly smash their heads on the steel Great Wall built with the blood and flesh of 1.4 billion Chinese.”
Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China attacked, and his administration has made improving the defense of democracy a priority.
Both China and the US now have reasons to stabilize relations after they fell to their lowest levels in decades over issues such as trade, semiconductors and espionage. Xi has been preoccupied with an economic recovery hampered by a real estate crisis, and Biden is gearing up for a tough re-election campaign while also dealing with the war in Ukraine and the Gaza crisis.
China has said in the past that it prefers to bring Taiwan under its control peacefully, but has not ruled out using its military to further its claim. In March, former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told lawmakers that his country should “promote the process of China’s peaceful reunification.”
Earlier this year, Beijing introduced a plan to promote closer economic integration between the island and Fujian, China’s coastal province across the Taiwan Strait from the island of 23 million people. Beijing welcomes such measures that benefit people on both sides, but in Taipei they are largely ignored.