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 “destabilising 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.
They exchanged views on topics including China-US relations, military ties, the Taiwan question, the situation in the South China Sea, and the Ukraine issue, Wu said.
According to a Pentagon readout of the meeting, Austin reiterated that the US “remains committed to our longstanding one China policy”.
The vast majority of countries in the world only recognise China under the “one China” policy but maintain proxy ties with Taiwan.
“Secretary Austin discussed global and regional security issues, and reiterated to General Wei that the United States remains committed to our longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three U.S.-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances,” the statement added.
“The Secretary reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and called on the PRC to refrain from further destabilising actions toward Taiwan,” the readout added.
Washington has frequently criticised Beijing for what it views as China’s increasingly aggressive and assertive actions over Taiwan and over the disputed islands in the South China Sea region.
During the talks, according to the Chinese statement, the two sides said, they believed that the two militaries should implement the important consensus reached by the respective heads of state, maintain high-level strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust between the two sides, manage and control conflicts and differences, and not turn “conflicts and differences into conflicts and confrontations”.
