U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of undermining the decadeslong status quo that has kept both nations from going to war over Taiwan, saying Beijing was trying to "speed up” its seizure of the island.
"What’s changed is this — a decision by the government in Beijing that that status quo was no longer acceptable, that they wanted to speed up the process by which they would pursue reunification,” Blinken said Wednesday during an interview in Washington.
"They also, I think, made decisions about how they would do that, including exerting more pressure on Taiwan, coercion — making life difficult in a variety of ways on Taiwan in the hopes that that would speed reunification,” Blinken said.