China asks the US to cancel the trade agreement with Taiwan

  The Chinese Foreign Ministry has urged the United States to withdraw the bill on the implementation of the trade initiative with ... the rebel island of Taiwan and to stop negotiations on this issue. On Thursday, June 1, US President Joe Biden signed a bill to implement the first phase of the deal as part of the US-Taiwan trade initiative for the 21st century. Previously, China had warned Washington not to approve any pact characterized by "connotations of sovereignty or of an official nature with the Chinese region of Taiwan", warned the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry Mao Ning, urging the US to "not send signals wrong to the pro-independence forces of Taiwan in the name of trade". The pact is "intended to strengthen and deepen economic and trade relations" between the parties, said Sam Michel, spokesman for the US Trade Representative.

"China has always strongly opposed any form of official exchange between countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations and Taiwan, including discussing and signing agreements of a sovereign and official nature," China's foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry notes that the US actions violate the "one China" principle, as well as the provisions of the three joint Sino-US communiqués. The United States, noted the Foreign Ministry, is breaking its promise to maintain only unofficial relations with Taiwan and is sending the wrong signal to the island's separatist forces. "China's will to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity is unshakable. We urge the United States to change course, withdraw the so-called 'bill', stop negotiations on the 'initiative'. We must not go any further on the wrong path" , underlined the Foreign Ministry. In early June, the Trade Negotiation Office of the Executive Yuan (Taiwan's Cabinet) reported that Taiwan and the United States signed the first agreement under the bilateral trade initiative one year after its launch . Taiwan's trade negotiator, the island's former economy minister Deng Zhenzhong, after signing the agreement, said the signed agreement is "the broadest and most comprehensive outcome of trade negotiations between the United States and Taiwan since 1979".

The move is intended to boost trade levels by streamlining customs controls, improving regulatory procedures and establishing anti-corruption measures between the United States and Taiwan. The agreement was signed by representatives of the American Institute of Taiwan (the de facto US embassy in Taipei) and the Office of Economic and Cultural Representative of Taipei to the United States (the island's de facto diplomatic mission) on the eve of the Shangri-La Dialogue's annual security summit, scheduled in Singapore from today to 4 June. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu are participating in the event, but should not have a bilateral meeting - as in past years. Taiwan welcomed yesterday's signing of the new trade agreement with the US designed to deepen economic ties, but inevitably destined to irritate China which claims full sovereignty over the island destined for reunification even by force, if necessary