War with the US would be an unbearable disaster, says China’s defence minister. In his first major speech as China‘s defence minister, he said a war with the US would be an “unbearable disaster” for the world.
General Li Shangfu stated at a security summit that “some countries” were intensifying an arms race in Asia.
However, he stated that the world was large enough for both China and the US and that the two superpowers should seek common ground.
Previously, the US accused a Chinese destroyer of “unsafe” maneuvers near a US warship in the Taiwan Strait.
The US Navy said on Saturday that a Chinese destroyer sailed “in an unsafe manner” near an American warship as it transited the Taiwan Strait with Canadian vessels.
Both countries were chastised by China for “deliberately provoking risk.” The United States and Canada stated that they were sailing where international law permitted.
Gen Li, who took over as Defence Minister in March, accused the US of having a “Cold War mentality,” which he said was “significantly increasing security risks.”
War with the US would be an unbearable disaster, says China’s defence minister.
In his speech, he stated that China would not allow US and allied naval patrols to be used as a “pretext to exercise hegemony over navigation.”
When asked about the incident in the Taiwan Strait, he only stated that countries outside the region were escalating tensions.
He was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, the Asia-Pacific region’s only annual security meeting, in Singapore.
In response to US sanctions imposed on Gen Li in 2018 for weapons purchases from Russia, Beijing has rejected a US request for direct military talks.
During the Singapore summit, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin chastised China for refusing to hold military talks.
According to reports, Gen Austin and Gen Li shook hands and spoke briefly at the event’s opening dinner on Friday, but there was no substantive exchange.
According to Zhou Bo, a retired officer of the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese defence minister’s “moderate” tone indicates that talks with his US counterpart are possible, but Washington must lift sanctions against him first.
Gen Li was sanctioned in 2018 over the acquisition of military hardware from Russia. His five-year term as defence minister started earlier this year, but the sanctions prevent him from travelling to the US and also make it difficult for him to invite Gen Austin to China, Mr Zhou added.
“If the sanction is there, how can we talk? The sanctions are very much consequential,” said Mr Zhou, now a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy in Beijing.
According to Reuters, senior intelligence officials attended a meeting of spy chiefs at the Singapore summit.
Despite the diplomatic squabble, a senior US State Department official has arrived in Beijing for a week of extensive talks.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated in recent years due to a variety of issues, including China’s claim to Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Lt Gen Jing Jianfeng, a senior PLA official, said there was no room for compromise on Taiwan, accusing the US of meddling in the region.
He told reporters on the sidelines of the summit that Washington’s decision to increase the number of troops on a rotational deployment in the region could increase the risk of a conflict.
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