Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the U.S. does not support Taiwan’s independence after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

Blinken was in Beijing to warm U.S. relations with China, which have become strained in recent years over several issues, including Taiwan.

“We do not support Taiwan independence,” Blinken said at a press conference after his meeting with the Chinese president in Beijing. “We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side.”

Biden Sec. of State Antony Blinken: "We do not support Taiwan independence." pic.twitter.com/PYdxjiMt1j

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 19, 2023

The Secretary of State met with President Xi for about 35 minutes at the Great Hall of the People on the west side of Tiananmen Square.

Blinken reiterated that the “longstanding” U.S. One China policy “has not changed.”

China holds that there is “one China” that includes Taiwan as a Chinese territory and has considered annexing Taiwan by force.

The U.S. maintains informal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Blinken added that the U.S. remains committed to its responsibility under the Taiwan Relations Act, which includes “making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.”

During the meeting, Blinken said he raised U.S. concerns about China’s “provocative actions” in the waters around Taiwan.

“We and many others have deep concerns about some of the provocative actions that China has taken in recent years going back to 2016,” Blinken said. “And the reason that this is a concern for so many countries, not just the United States, is that were there to be a crisis over Taiwan, the likelihood is that could produce an economic crisis that could affect quite literally the entire world.”

Blinken referenced the high level of commercial container traffic that goes through the Taiwan Strait every day as well as the high percentage of semiconductors that are manufactured in Taiwan.

“If as a result of a crisis that was taken offline, it would have dramatic consequences for virtually every country around the world,” Blinken said.

“We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait differences,” Blinken said.

President Xi said, “This is very good,” reportedly referring to the progress made during the meeting.

However, the Chinese president also appeared to reference China’s grievances.

“State-to-state interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity. I hope that through this visit, Mr. Secretary, you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing China-U.S. relations,” Xi said during his opening remarks at the meeting.

Blinken acknowledged that the U.S. had not accomplished one of the primary goals of the meeting — China did not agree to set up a crisis military-to-military communications channel.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

U.S. relations with China have deteriorated in the last few years. Topics that have strained the relationship include Taiwan, China’s close relationship with Russia, a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., and data security concerns with the Chinese app TikTok.

Meanwhile, there have been several close encounters recently between U.S. and Chinese military ships and aircraft.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military released video of an “unsafe” move by a Chinese navy ship, which cut across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the American ship to slow down to avoid a crash. In May, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said a Chinese fighter pilot performed an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” while intercepting a U.S. aircraft over the South China Sea.

In 2022, the U.S. and China had $690 billion in trade, a record for the two countries.

The death of a 29-year-old Vermont man awaiting trial for allegedly murdering his mother and grandfather to collect millions of dollars in inheritance is not suspicious, the state Department of Justice said Friday.

Nathan Carman was alone in his cell at a county jail in New Hampshire when guards found him dead around 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning, he left behind a note for his attorneys in what is being called a likely suicide, The Middletown Press reported. The actual cause of death, however, will not be publicly released, per the policy of The New Hampshire Office of the Chief Medical Examine.

“We believe Mr. Carman left us a note that we look forward to receiving to make sense of a very tragic situation,” said David Sullivan, an attorney for Carman.

Carman was set to go on trial for the murders on October 2. He was accused of shooting and killing his grandfather, former Army paratrooper and self-made millionaire John Chakalos, in 2013, Fox News reported. Carman allegedly killed his grandfather to collect $550,000 from the family trust fund, which he reportedly spent within three years.

Out of money, Carman took his mother, Linda, out on his boat in 2016, which he intentionally sank to kill her and collect $85,000 in insurance money, prosecutors allege.

The indictment against Carman was unsealed in May 2022. It does not explain how Carman allegedly killed his mother, but it says he purposefully sunk the boat the two were on that day. Carman spent eight days on a life raft after the boat sank before being found by a commercial fishing ship.

In 2016, after the boat sank, Carman told the Associated Press that he tried to find his mother when the ship began to sink. He told the outlet that he heard a “funny noise” coming from the engine compartment, and water started pouring in, sinking the boat in just minutes. He claimed at the time that he saw his mother in the cockpit of the boat and rushed to grab food, flares, and life jackets, but she was gone when he looked back.

“What happened on the boat was a terrible tragedy that I am still trying to process and that I am still trying to come to terms with,” he told the AP at the time.

Suspicions were raised even at the time of the incident, including the death of Carman’s grandfather three years earlier. He told the AP in the same interview that he had nothing to do with his grandfather’s death.

“My grandfather was like a father to me, and I was like a son to him,” Carman said at the time. “He was the closest person in the world to me, and I loved him and he loved me, and I had absolutely nothing to do with his death.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

A search warrant had been issued in 2014 relating to the death of Carman’s grandfather, Chakalos. The warrant, obtained by the AP, explained that Carman was the last person to see his grandfather alive, had purchased a rifle consistent with the one used in the shooting, and discarded his hard drive and GPS unit around the time his grandfather died.

Chakalos divvied up his $42 million estate between his four adult daughters, one of whom was Carman’s mother. Carman’s three aunts filed a lawsuit in 2018 in which they accused him of killing his grandfather and possibly his mother to gain the money. In the lawsuit, they asked a judge to block Carman from receiving his inheritance.

Carman’s trial is set for October 2 and is expected to last for more than two weeks.