China’s military will attack “without any hesitation” any nation that dares to separate it from Taiwan, Chinese state councilor and defense minister General Li Shangfu has said.
Li made the comments in a speech on “China’s New Security Initiative” at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend, during which he stressed that a “sound security and development environment” is the key to sustained prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We in China believe that the key for countries to live in harmony is mutual respect and treating each other as equals,” Li, a general of the People’s Liberation Army, said in the speech.
“We are strongly opposed to imposing one’s own will on others, placing one’s own interests above those of others, and pursuing one’s own security at the expense of others,” he said, adding that “some country”—appearing to refer to the United States—had interfered in the internal affairs of other nations and “frequently resorted to unilateral sanctions and coercion with force.”
His comments came amid strained relations between the United States and China over the latter’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan.
Just days earlier, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command accused the Chinese military of conducting a “dangerous interaction” on June 3 when its Luyang III DDG 132, a guided-missile destroyer, cut across the path of an American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon as it was traveling with Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal in the Taiwan Strait
China has accused the United States of deliberately creating incidents in the Taiwan Strait region, and said it acted in accordance with the country’s law.
China Calls for ‘Mutual Respect’
“We must never allow such things to happen again in the Asia-Pacific ... China firmly supports ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] centrality and its strategic autonomy. We are committed to promoting cooperative, collective, and common security in our region on the basis of mutual respect,” said the minister.Later, Li stressed that Taiwan is “China’s Taiwan,” and condemned any form of foreign interference aimed at changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan has been independent since 1949, but China considers the self-ruled island part of its territory that must be united with the mainland—by force if necessary.
“The authorities of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) [ the ruling party of Taiwan] seek independence by colluding with foreign forces and some external forces use Taiwan to contain China. They are the biggest troublemakers in changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” he said, according to a statement from China Military Online, the military news website of the Chinese armed forces.
US, China Join Naval Exercise
Li’s remarks came shortly after he reportedly turned down an invitation to talk with U.S. secretary of defence Lloyd Austin at the conference in Singapore.However, The Guardian reports that the two did shake hands ahead of the conference.
Austin later delivered his own remarks at the conference, where he stressed that aggressive actions on Taiwan by its neighbor would have a “devastating” impact on the entire globe.
“The whole world has a stake in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait—the whole world. The security of commercial shipping lanes and global supply chains depends on it. And so does freedom of navigation worldwide,” Austin said.
“Make no mistake: conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating,” he added.
Despite the ongoing tensions between the two major powers, beginning Monday, the United States and China joined more than 30 other nations in taking part in a multilateral naval exercise in the Makassar Strait, Indonesia.
Other nations joining the routine exercise, known as the “Komodo naval drills,” include Russia, India, and Japan.
