Top defence officials of China and the US sparred over Taiwan at their first face-to-face meeting on Friday with Beijing threatening to “crush” any “independence plot” in the self-ruled democracy – which it claims as its own – and Washington urging China not carry out “destabilizing actions” on the island.
Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin met for about an hour on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore, a major three-day defence forum, which opened on Friday.
The in-person meeting was under sharp focus because the two ministers had only spoken once on the phone in late April.
They were meeting against the backdrop of rising tension between the two largest economies over a range of issues including Taiwan, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, human rights issues in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as the erosion of rights in Hong Kong.
Beijing has also blamed Washington and Nato for the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and criticised western countries for selling arms to Kyiv.
During Friday’s talks, Wei told Austin that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan” and that the one-China principle is the political foundation of Sino-US relations.
It is impossible to “use Taiwan to control China,” he said.
The Chinese minister strongly criticised the US for its latest sale of arms to Taiwan, saying it seriously undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests.
“China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” Wei said, according to Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson of China’s ministry of national defence.
“The Chinese government and military will resolutely crush any attempt at ‘Taiwan independence’ and resolutely safeguard the reunification of the motherland,” Wei said.
“If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate to fight, and will resolutely crush any ‘Taiwan independence’ attempts at all cost, and firmly safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Wei said, according to Wu’s statement.
