China bluffed, world huffed: Ahead of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit Xi told Biden on phone ‘no intention of war’

New Delhi: After months of diplomatic efforts failed to stop US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s planned visit to Taiwan, Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his 28 July phone call conversation with US President Joe Biden told him that this wasn’t the time for a full-blown crisis.

Xi, who views bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s control as central to his vision of Chinese national revival, had dailled the US President just four days before Pelosi’s visit to the island nation.

Xi had warned Biden of unspecified consequences if  Pelosi went to Taipei in their conversation,  Wall Street Journal report quoted people briefed on the call as saying. But he also indicated that he had no intention of going to war with the US and said both sides needed to “maintain peace and security,” added the report.

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Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said: “President Xi elaborated on China’s principled position on the Taiwan question” in his discussion with Biden.

Biden administration officials said they made it clear to Beijing that Washington is committed to the “One China” policy that has long underpinned the relationship between the two countries but that lawmakers have the right to visit Taiwan.

China’s attempt to intimidate the Taiwanese public and advertise its strategy for blockading and potentially invading the island was nominally prompted by a visit to Taipei last week by Pelosi. After Pelosi left Taiwan, China reacted with days of large-scale military exercises. On Thursday, China renewed its threat to attack Taiwan following almost a week of war games near the island. Taiwan has called Beijing’s claim to the self-governing democracy “wishful thinking" and launched its own military exercises. Taiwan’s “collusion with external forces to seek independence and provocation will only accelerate their own demise and push Taiwan into the abyss of disaster,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing. “Their pursuit of Taiwan independence will never succeed, and any attempt to sell the national interest will be met with a complete failure," Wang told reporters. The US, Japan and allies have denounced the exercises, with the Group of Seven industrialised nations issuing a statement at a recent meeting expressing its concern. Taiwan says Beijing used Pelosi’s visit as a pretext to raise the stakes in its feud with Taipei, firing missiles into the Taiwan Strait and over the island into the Pacific Ocean. China also sent planes and ships across the midline in the strait that has long been a buffer between the sides, which separated amid civil war in 1949. In a lengthy policy statement on Taiwan issued Wednesday, China distorted the historical record, including the United Nations’ 1972 resolution that transferred the China seat on the Security Council from Taipei to Beijing, Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council said. The Chinese statement also discarded a pledge not to send troops or government officials to Taiwan that was contained in previous statements.

China’s leaders sought to calibrate their response to be forceful but not provoke an escalatory response from Washington and its allies, the report quoted people familiar with Beijing’s thinking.

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At the moment, Xi’s priority is to bring in stability in the region ahead of a high-level Communist Party conclave later this year where is hopes to get another term.

 However,  China’s actions have further strained relations with the US and raised security concerns among its allies. Other countries across Asia and Europe fear Beijing’s approach could herald the start of a new phase of more direct pressure on Taiwan.

“Beijing will be uber-reactive to Taiwan going forward,” said Jude Blanchette, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “That is the defining feature of the US-China relationship for many months to come,” Wall Street Journal report quoted Blanchette as saying.

Speaking to Biden just before Pelosi’s visit was politically risky for Xi. However, he decided to talk to Biden to minimise the risks of a conflict with the US, according to the people familiar with the decision-making process.

China’s foreign-policy establishment has historically been careful about scheduling leader-to-leader engagements, concerned about a loss of face should the other side do something contrary to Beijing’s interests soon after the bilateral exchange.

Chinese officials had warned Washington against a Taiwan visit by Pelosi since April, when news reports first revealed the speaker’s travel plans. Pelosi had to postpone the journey after testing positive for Covid-19.

Beijing worries that Pelosi’s visit could trigger a “domino effect” of other world politicians traveling to Taipei, boosting its international standing and potentially encouraging a declaration of independence, according to the people with knowledge of Chinese thinking.

Even though Beijing’s long-stated goal is to bring Taiwan under its rule, the people said, its focus for now remains preventing the self-governed island from moving toward formal independence.

With inputs from agencies

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