WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Dispatches) - Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned against playing with fire over Taiwan in a call with U.S. President Joe Biden, highlighting Beijing’s concerns about a possible visit to the Chinese-claimed island by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Those who play with fire will perish by it,” China’s foreign ministry quoted Xi as telling Biden in their fifth call as leaders. “It is hoped that the U.S. will be clear-eyed about this.”
Xi said Washington should abide by the “one-China principle” and stressed that China firmly opposes Taiwanese independence and outside interference.
Biden told Xi U.S. policy on Taiwan had not changed and that Washington strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, the White House said.
Beijing this week warned that it was “getting ready” for a possible visit by Pelosi, which would be the first to Taiwan by a sitting U.S. House speaker since 1997.
“We are firmly opposed to Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
“If the U.S. pushes ahead and challenges China’s bottom line... the U.S. side will bear all the consequences,” he added.
To further escalate the already heightened tension between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group, including a guided missile destroyer and a guided missile cruiser, which had left Singapore on Monday, entered the South China Sea, which is almost entirely claimed by China.
The group is expected to sail through the Taiwan Strait, a strategically-sensitive waterway that separates Chinese Taipei from mainland China.
U.S. naval forces have been conducting such maneuvers near Chinese waters about once a month, irking Beijing, which considers the sailings as a sign of support for the self-governing island territory of Taiwan.
Scott Kennedy, a China analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said leader-level contacts were essential to preventing this.
Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will never tolerate “Taiwan independence” separatist acts and external interference, and will take resolute countermeasures, a Chinese defense spokesperson said.
“Actions are the best answer,” said Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, at a regular press conference.
Wu made the remarks while answering a question on Taiwan-related military actions.
“The relevant sides should learn to adapt, reflect on themselves and, more importantly, avoid going down the wrong path further,” Wu said, stressing that the collusion of “Taiwan independence” separatists and external forces is the root cause of the tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
He noted that the Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affairs which brooks no external interference.

Kremlin Warns U.S. Against
‘Provocative’ Moves

Lavrov made the remarks during a press conference after a session of the Foreign Ministers Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which began earlier on Friday in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
“Our position on the existence of only one China remains unchanged,” he told reporters in Tashkent. “We have no problem with upholding the principle of China’s sovereignty.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters that Russia expresses solidarity with China on the issue of Taiwan.
“We respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and believe that no country in the world should have the right to question this or take any inflammatory or other steps,” he said.
“We are convinced that such behavior on the international arena can only cause additional tension.”
Xi also urged Biden to stick to the “one China” principle that recognizes Beijing, not Taipei, diplomatically, warning him against supporting Taiwan’s independence.
Under the “one China” policy, nearly all countries across the globe recognize Beijing’s sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, including the US, which has no formal diplomatic ties with the territory but continues to support its anti-China stance and supply it with massive amounts of armaments.