Coming off the highly provocative visit of a trio of US senators to Taiwan over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Biden administration has launched plans for trade and investment talks with Taiwan, in what Beijing will surely see as creeping efforts to 'normalize' Taiwan independence claims in violation of the longstanding One China policy.

Without giving much in the way of details, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a House committee hearing on Monday that "We are engaged in conversations with Taiwan, or soon will be—on some kind of framework agreement," when asked about potential deeper talks.

The statement was enough to trigger an expected condemnation out of China's Foreign Ministry, with its embassy in D.C. telling the WSJ that Washington must "stop all forms of official exchanges and contacts with Taiwan, stop elevating its relationship with the Taiwan region in any substantive way."