Taiwan Strait Crisis To Be Devastating For Global Economy - Blinken

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2022) A crisis in the Taiwan Strait will have devastating consequences for the global economy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

"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 at The Wall Street Journal conference.

The US official explained that 50% of the world's container traffic passes through the strait on a daily basis, and a large share of microprocessors and semiconductors are produced in Taiwan.

"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 said.

The situation around Taiwan escalated after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in early August.

Beijing condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island. Despite this fact, several countries, including Germany, have sent delegations to the island since then, further increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since 1949. Beijing views the island as its province, while Taiwan � a territory with its own elected government � maintains that it is an autonomous country but stops short of declaring independence. Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign states with Taipei and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable.