Xi Jinping met with Ma Ying-jeou

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday.

Compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same Chinese nation, Xi said. The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation saw successive generations of ancestors move and settle down in Taiwan and people from across the Straits fight side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders.

People on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are all Chinese, Xi said. “There are no knots that cannot be untied, no issues that cannot be discussed, and no force that can separate us.”

He said that the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Strait belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification.

In the meeting, Ma said that upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing “Taiwan independence” are the common political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

The meeting marks the second meeting between Xi and Ma after the two had a historic exchange in Singapore in 2015.

‘In move to cover own failure’, Cameron invokes China during Washington lobbying mission

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron repeatedly mentioned China during his US capital lobbying trip aiming to unblock a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine held up in the US Congress. Chinese analysts said on Tuesday it is a malicious move Cameron is using to scapegoat China for his country’s decision-making failures in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, signaling the UK’s growing anxiety regarding the trajectory of the conflict.

A $60 billion package of military aid is bogged down in the US House of Representatives as populist conservatives seek to block further funding for the two-year-old conflict and some mainstream Republicans demand concessions on border security before supporting the bill.

Cameron made the remarks during and after a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US State Department on Tuesday US local time and in an obvious bid to persuade the Congress to swiftly approve the aid.

“We know it’s right to send this very clear message to all those watching around the world, including China, that we stand by our allies, that we don’t reward aggression, that we help those who are trying to fight it off. And we know it’s right for our own security,” the British foreign secretary said at the joint press conference with Blinken on Tuesday.

“Cameron repeatedly mentioned China when he sought US support for aid to Ukraine in Washington. This serves as a scapegoat for his decision-making failures in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, while also using this issue to facilitate global geopolitical competition against China by the UK and US, undermining China’s international influence. These malicious actions deserve caution,” said Li Haidong, a professor from the China Foreign Affairs University.