SINGAPORE. “If anyone dares to divide Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate to start a war, at any cost.” This is the warning made by the Chinese Defense Minister, Wei Fenghe, to his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on the occasion of the ‘Shangri-La Dialogue’ summit. According to official sources, in the conversation between the two government officials, Wei stressed that “Taiwan is the Taiwan of China” and that Beijing will not hesitate to “destroy any conspiracy of Taiwan in a thousand pieces” and will support “resolutely unification from part of the motherland “.
Austin, for its part, as reported by the Pentagon has called on Beijing to “refrain” from any further destabilizing action in the region, reaffirming “the importance of peace and stability and the rejection of unilateral changes to the status quo”.