Original article behind paywall
British daily Financial Times claims Xi issued the warning in meeting with Ursula von der Leyen in April 2023.
China’s President Xi Jinping told European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen that Washington was trying to “goad Beijing into attacking Taiwan,” the Financial Times said on Saturday.
In a report based on information from people familiar with the matter, the British daily said Xi issued the warning in a meeting with von der Leyen in April 2023. She paid an official visit to China last year which coincided with the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to the newspaper, Xi said the US was trying to trick China into invading Taiwan, but that he would not take the bait.
The revelation comes as tensions are high across the Taiwan Strait. China responded to last month’s inauguration of Lai Ching-te as Taiwan’s new president with military drills around the island, which it claims as its own. Taipei, however, insists on its independence since 1949.
Xi’s remarks are probably the first known case of him making the claim to a foreign leader.
The Chinese leader also said that a conflict with the US would undermine his goal of achieving a “great rejuvenation” by 2049.
US officials have, in recent years, increased engagement with Taiwan but the administration says it remains committed to its longstanding one-China policy.
At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this month, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun said the country’s military was ready to “forcefully” stop Taiwan’s independence.
Earlier, the Foreign Ministry said those supporting independence for Taiwan would find themselves “crushed.”
Yeah the US did way better…
If you’re trying to use whataboutism in order to defend a dictatorship, at least put some semblance of effort into it.
And yes, even under Trump, the US did much, much better. It’s not even a competition, unless you’re believing in official Chinese numbers.
lol you are always jumping to the extreme whenever I criticize the US even a little.
I didn’t “defend a dictatorship”, I correctly pointed out that the pandemic was handled terribly in the states, especially from the president, so it was a dumb thing to use as a metric for how a leader is doing. Trump was a fucking joke. He created a terrible situation and reaffirmed the antivaxxers. He was basically telling people to take crazy doses of ivermectin instead and implying it was all “fake news”. Maybe you don’t understand the entirety of that since you said yourself you “aren’t a US citizen” but for some reason you are always reaffirming our propaganda.
In regards to numbers, should we just believe state sponsored media or confirmed CIA startups like Radio Free Asia instead? They are usually listed as a source for these kinds of things despite the fact that their sole purpose for being created was to combat the spread of socialism.
The US is just a beacon of truth that would never lie about a socialist country or attempt to manufacture consent. /s