Staff members chat behind Chinese and US flags displayed at the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, on Sept 4, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

A virtual meeting between the leaders of China and the United States on Tuesday comes as the two nations' ties arrive at a "key crossroads" and is a major event concerning not only bilateral ties but also international relations, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The people of China and the US, as well as the international community hope the meeting will yield results that benefit both countries and the world, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will have a candid, in-depth and full exchange of views on strategic issues concerning the future of bilateral relations and other important issues, Zhao said.

The US should strengthen talks and cooperation with China, manage differences effectively, handle sensitive issues properly, discuss with China the way for the two major countries to get along while respecting each other and bring bilateral relations back to the right track of sound and steady development, Zhao said.

The US has further complicated bilateral ties with recent actions encouraging "Taiwan independence" forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke recently of US "interest in peace and stability "across the Taiwan Straits and "commitments" to Taiwan.

Zhao said that the US statements on the Taiwan question had been distorted and regressed over the past 40 years, "and deviated from the consensus it reached with China when the two countries established diplomatic ties". He added that the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques are important political consensus between the two countries and form the political foundation of bilateral ties.

The so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" and the "Six Assurances" the US made in 1982 were "a pure concoction by some forces in the US "running counter to the three China-US joint communiques, and are "illegal and void", Zhao said.

The root of the current tension across the Taiwan Straits lies in the fact that the Democratic Progressive Party-led authorities and separatist forces in Taiwan have been colluding with external forces to seek "Taiwan independence", Zhao added, emphasizing that China's reunification is an unstoppable trend, and that it is the consensus of the international community to stick to the one-China principle.

"Any kind of behavior to support and embolden 'Taiwan independence' forces is interference in China's domestic affairs and goes against the peace and stability of the Straits," he said, urging the US to observe the one-China policy and the three China-US joint communiques and deal with the Taiwan question properly.

(China Daily)