Impact of Taiwan crisis on world economy could be devastating: Blinken
Blinken urges China to consider other countries' voices on the Taiwan matter, as the US continues to prepare for war in an area thousands of miles away from home.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (ABC News)
During The Wall Street Journal conference on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a crisis in the Taiwan Strait will bear 'devastating' outcomes for the global economy, which is already in dire straits.
"If there were to be a crisis, which is, of course, the very thing that we want to avert, the impact on countries around the world, the impact on the world economy could be devastating," Blinken said, clarifying further that the Taiwan Strait is a daily route for half of the world's container shipments.
"I think what China is hearing from other countries, not just us, is that there should not be unilateral steps to change the status quo," Blinken continued.
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A timeline of signals
The tension between China and the US hit a new high following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which in fact kept the whole world on its toes fearing a third world war.
"We're in intense competition... we don't want it to veer into conflict," Blinken warned.
In October, the US Secretary of State said that Beijing "just has to be responsive to demand signals that it's getting from countries around the world to be a positive actor, not a negative actor, on issues that concern them."
In August, the US has become "the main destroyer" of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted.
"This once again demonstrates that some American politicians are destroyers of Sino-US relations, whereas the US has become the primary destroyer of peace and regional stability between the two shores of the Taiwan Strait," he concluded.
August witnessed China launch its biggest military drills yet around the island, and war preparations have been escalating ever since on both sides.
On Saturday, the Pentagon revealed the B-21 raider as one of three weapon systems including silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, meant to advance warfare preparations against the "Chinese threat" keeping the US on its toes.
In a statement, the Pentagon said last week of China's recent military developments that it has birthed "the most consequential and systemic challenge to US national security and the free and open international system."
