The Chinese regime ignored the US call for dialogue and threatened Taiwan again: “We do not promise to give up force”

New attack by the Chinese regime against Taiwan: “We do not promise to give up force.” (Reuters)

The Chinese regime’s Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, assured this Saturday at a security forum in Singapore that his country “does not promise to give up force” to take Taiwan, amid new tensions with the US related to Taipei.

“Taiwan is at the center of China’s interests. It is an internal and indisputable matter. It is up to China to decide how to solve it,” Li remarked during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, the most important annual security forum in Asia, in which his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, also participates.

Li’s comments come amid new tensions in the Taiwan Strait and after the words of the head of the US Pentagon in the same forum, where he stressed that the US, which supplies the island with weapons and in principle would defend it in the event of an attack, “will continue to categorically oppose a change in the (Taiwan) status quo by either party.”

This Saturday a Chinese military ship maneuvered dangerously 137 meters from the USS Chung-Hoon destroyer while it was conducting joint exercises with the Canadian Navy near Taiwan, according to the Canadian portal Global News.

A Chinese military ship maneuvered dangerously within 137 meters of the US destroyer USS Chung-Hoon as it conducted joint exercises with the Canadian Navy near Taiwan. (Reuters)

Asked about the near collision of the boats, Li assured in the forum that “it is not about innocent voyages, but about provocations.”

Xi Jinping’s Defense Minister, who took office in March, repeatedly indirectly criticized the US for allegedly being “responsible” for the instability in the Taiwan Strait, asking questions such as: “Who is undermining security? ? The answer is clear.”

Li warned that the more such moves, “the more decisive we will be in our response. All interference will fail (…) China must be and will be reunified”.

The minister added that, although the intention is for it to be a “peaceful reunification”, China does not renounce the use of force “regardless of the cost if there are provocations”.

“I want to ask a question. Why are these incidents occurring in areas near China and not other countries? I think it is because the Chinese ships do not carry out hegemonic actions near other countries (…) As we always say: mind your own business and take care of your own neighborhood”.

Li’s comments come amid new tensions in the Taiwan Strait and after the words of the head of the US Pentagon in the same forum, where he stressed that the US, which supplies the island with weapons and in principle would defend it in the event of an attack, “will continue to categorically oppose a change in the (Taiwan) status quo by either party.” (Reuters)

The Chinese regime official did not otherwise address questions about complaints from neighboring countries such as the Philippines about the presence of Chinese ships in their territorial waters, while Beijing claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea.

Despite the sometimes harsh tone of the speech, Li said that “China and the US must manage their differences and find a way to get along.”

Although he asserted that his country is “open” to communication with the US side, he emphasized that “if there is no mutual respect, dialogue is not productive.”

“The correct path is mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and development of the two parties,” Li stressed, after Beijing’s refusal to meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.

Although he did not refer to it specifically, one of the main obstacles to the bilateral meeting is that Li was sanctioned in 2018 by the United States, accused of buying weapons from the Russian state company Rosoboronexport.

(With information from EFE)

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