The Chinese Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, assured in a security forum in Singapore that his country “does not promise to give up force” to take Taiwan, after new tensions with the United States over the autonomous island. «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 resolve it,” Li said during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue, the most important annual security forum in Asia, which is also attended by his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.
Li’s comments come amid new tensions in the Taiwan Strait and after Austin’s words the day before in the same forum, where he stressed that the United States, which supplies the island with weapons and would in principle defend it in case of attack , “will continue to categorically oppose a change of the (Taiwan) status quo by either side.” A Chinese naval vessel maneuvered dangerously 137 meters away from the US destroyer USS Chung-Hoon as it conducted joint exercises with the Canadian Navy near Taiwan. When asked about the near collision the day before, Li denounced on the forum that “these are not innocent crossings but provocations”.
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The Chinese defense minister, who took office in March, has repeatedly indirectly criticized the United States for being “responsible” for the instability in the Taiwan Strait, asking questions such as: “Who is undermining security? The answer is clear.” Li warned that with more maneuvers of this type “we will be more decisive in our response. Any interference will fail. China must and will be reunified.” The minister added that, although the intention is that of “peaceful reunification”, China does not renounce the use of force “regardless of the cost in case of provocations”. “I want to ask a question. Why do these incidents happen in areas close to China and not in other countries? I think it’s because Chinese ships don’t carry out hegemonic actions near other countries (…) As we always say: be careful, mind your own business and look after your neighborhood”.
The Chinese minister, on the other hand, did not ask questions about complaints from neighboring countries, such as the Philippines, about the presence of Chinese ships in its territorial waters, while Beijing claims almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea. Despite the sometimes harsh tone of the speech, Li also presented China as a force for peace, saying that “China and the United States should manage their differences and find a way to get along.” While affirming that his country is “open” to communication with the US side, he underlined that “if there is no mutual respect, dialogue is not productive”. “The right path is mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and the development of the two sides,” Li stressed, after Beijing’s refusal to meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin. Although Li did not specifically refer to it, one of the main stumbling blocks for the bilateral meeting is that Li was sanctioned in 2018 by the United States, accused of purchasing weapons from the Russian state-owned company Rosoboronexport.