US Secretary Of State To Meet Chinese Officials In Laos, Discuss Taiwan Conflict To The South China Sea

United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken/PHOTO via Instagram @secblinken

JAKARTA - United States (US) Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese officials next week in Laos.

Blinken, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, said it was important for the US and China to be able to communicate in areas they did not agree on, including in the South China Sea and Taiwan, reported by Reuters, Friday, July 19.

Regarding tensions between China and Taiwa, the Taiwanese government is closely observing China's military, which they say is an increasing threat in the region.

A number of Chinese warplanes passed near the island to join the training with China's Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

This Chinese military exercise coincided with the summit of NATO in Washington, where the communique draft said China had become a determining factor in Russia's war efforts in Ukraine and Beijing continued to pose systemic challenges to Europe and security.

Shandong crossed near the Philippines on his way to training in the Pacific, Taiwan's defense minister said on Wednesday, July 10.

In a daily update on China's military activities over the past 24 hours, released on Thursday, July 11, Taiwan's Ministry of Defense said it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island.

Of these, 39 of them crossed south and southeast of Taiwan, the ministry said. On Wednesday, the ministry said it had detected 36 aircraft bound for the Western Pacific to conduct exercises in Shandong.

Taiwan's Ministry of Defense released two images, a blurry black-and-white image of China's J-16 fighter and a color image of the nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, which it said were taken recently.

The military has a detailed understanding of activities in the sea and waters around the Taiwan Strait, including Chinese Communist planes and ships, said ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang.

Taiwanese troops have tracked two Chinese warplanes photographed, he said.