At a high-profile summit in Singapore, China issued a warning to the United States against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in response to Pete Hegseth’s call for the Asian nation to “play with fire.”
Hegseth claimed at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday that China was “credibly preparing” for military action and that Beijing was “rehearsing a potential invasion of Taiwan.”
Taiwan, a separately governed island, is a part of China’s territory, and it has pledged to reunite with it using force if necessary. Beijing’s government rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty, saying that only the people of Taiwan can determine their future.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately criticized Hegseth’s remarks, which warned foreign countries against using Taiwan as leverage and stressed that Taiwan is still a domestic issue. It claimed that US actions in the Asia-Pacific region had “turned the region into a powder keg.”
The US shouldn’t play with fire, it said, “nor should it make up its mind that the Taiwan problem is a bargaining chip to contain China.”
Hegseth had warned of the “real and potentially imminent” threat from China to allies in the Asia-Pacific region, including important security ally Australia, to spend more on defense.
Beijing accused Washington of using offensive force in the South China Sea and escalating regional tensions, calling the US a “true destabilizing” force in the Asia Pacific.
Hegseth was accused of “vilifying China with defamatory allegations” and “promoting a “Cold War mentality” in Beijing.
The ministry claimed that Hegseth purposefully defied the countries’ calls for peace and development, instead promoting the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, defaming China with defamatory accusations, and making up a threat to China. It also stated that it had lodged a formal protest with the US over what it termed “inflammatory rhetoric.”
As their coastguards battle it out for control of some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, China and the Philippines vie for control of some of those islands and atolls.
Beijing also refuted US claims that China has threatened maritime navigation, stating that it has consistently promoted dialogue to resolve regional disputes and exercised its territorial rights within international law’s parameters.
The statement read, “The US is the biggest factor preventing peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
Beijing sent a delegation of lower-ranking representatives in place of China’s defense minister, Dong Jun, who had previously skipped the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top security forum.
China has not sent its defense minister to the high-level dialogue on regional defense for the first time since 2019, aside from when the event was postponed in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Aljazeera
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