China’s defence minister began his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference by claiming inaccurately that China had never started a war against another country, Financial Times reports.
Yet minutes later, General Wei Fenghe warned the audience of officials and security experts from Indo-Pacific countries that the People’s Liberation Army would “crush” any effort by Taiwan to pursue independence.
“The US fought a civil war for its unity. China never wants such a civil war. We will resolutely crush any attempt to pursue Taiwanese independence,” Wei told the audience on Sunday, a bizarre reference since the dispute between Beijing and Taipei has its origins in the Chinese civil war that brought the Communist party to power in 1949. In 1979, China started a war with Vietnam by launching a large-scale invasion of its southern neighbour that Beijing said was punishment for Hanoi’s military action against the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and for border violations.
The three-star general’s comments came a day after his first meeting with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, which followed almost no senior contact between the militaries since Joe Biden came to office.
Wei and Austin were attending the forum at a time when Sino-US relations are in their worst state since the nations normalised ties in 1979, and with anxiety rising about possible Chinese military action against Taiwan.
Those tensions were on display over two days in Singapore, as both sides expressed concerns over the other’s activities. Austin accused the Chinese military of conducting dangerous aerial and maritime manoeuvres, while Wei described the US as an arrogant hegemon that was forming anti-China blocs under the guise of multilateralism.
“While the Wei-Austin meeting seemed to be aimed at putting in place guardrails for Taiwan, the public back-and-forth shows that we face a long road to any kind of stability,” said Natasha Kassam, a Taiwan expert at the Lowy Institute think-tank.
