CHINA: ‘STATUS QUO NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE’: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is warning that Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is about to be awarded an unprecedented third five-year term as leader of China, has grown impatient with Taiwan and wants to take control of the self-governing island much sooner than previously thought.

“There has been a change in the approach from Beijing toward Taiwan in recent years. And instead of sticking with the status quo that was established in a positive way, a fundamental decision that the status quo was no longer acceptable and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline,” said Blinken at a Hoover Institution event at Stanford University.