US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday (local time) issued a warning to China stating it would be a "serious mistake" for anyone to attempt to change Taiwan's "status quo" amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over the island country's sovereignty.
"What we have seen and what is a real concern to us is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing, directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the straits. And we have a commitment to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, a bipartisan commitment that's existed for many, many years, to make sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and to make sure that we're sustaining peace and security in the Western Pacific. We stand behind those commitments," Blinken said in an interview with NBC News, according to a transcript provided by the US Department of State.