China’s defense minister has strongly denied US accusations of aggression, trying to portray Beijing as a responsible power and Western countries as outsiders undermining stability in Asia.
China aims to be “a builder of world peace, contributing to global development, a defender of international order and a provider of public goods,” General Wei Fenghe told a security conference at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday. , invented by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wei’s remarks came as defense and foreign policy and forum analysts confronted China over its threats against Taiwan, aggressive interceptions of Western military planes in the South China Sea and ambitions to build strongholds for expanding forces.
As for Taiwan, Wei’s message was inflexible, but no more belligerent than usual. He said the country was “Chinese Taiwan” and reiterated that Beijing saw the annexation of the island as a historic mission “absolutely to be achieved” and for which its military would be ready to fight.
But Wei said that peaceful reunification remains “the greatest hope of the Chinese people and we continue to hold the greatest sincerity and are ready to make the greatest efforts” to achieve it.
“Wei put forward a rather compressive position, which I thought was firm, but did not break a new foundation. He repeated the statement [China’s president] Xi [Jinping] made to [Joe] Biden said last November that China would do everything possible to strive for peaceful reunification, “said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asian program at the German Marshall Fund.
A relatively calm position came when Beijing tried to avoid further escalation of tensions with the United States over Taiwan. On Friday, China praised the meeting between Wei and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, which was dominated by discussions in Taiwan as “frank, positive and constructive.”
The next day, Austin criticized Beijing for calling for a “steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan” and warned that the United States would maintain “its own capacity to oppose any use of force” against the country.
However, observers said China’s soft messages refuted a position that remained firm in nature. A U.S. official said People’s Liberation Army officers have told U.S. counterparts in recent months that the Taiwan Strait is not international waters.
“This sounds like a new position and has operational implications,” Glaser said.
While Beijing has in the past mostly complained about US support for Taiwan, Wei has also argued that “other countries” are interfering in China’s affairs over the island.
“He issued a veiled statement acknowledging that he was watching what other countries were doing in support of Taiwan,” said Maya Nowens, an expert on the Chinese military at the IISS, a think tank and conference organizer.
Way also defended the rapid modernization and expansion of the PLA.
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He said it was natural for China to develop new weapons when asked by the Financial Times about China’s highly sophisticated hypersonic weapon in July 2021, which shocked the Pentagon.
“Many countries are testing weapons. It’s no surprise that China is doing it, “Wei said. “These weapons are for the protection of China’s national interests. . . It’s natural for us to have new weapons. “
The FT reported last year that the PLA had tested a hypersonic nuclear weapon that had traveled the world and fired a rocket as it flew over the South China Sea.
China’s foreign ministry has previously denied the FT report, saying China has tested a spacecraft. Wei’s comments noted that Beijing was closest to confirming the hypersonic weapons test.
“Gen Wei acknowledged that last year’s test was a demonstration of a weapon that contradicted the Foreign Office’s earlier alibis,” said Ankit Panda, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The implication of his comments is that we should expect more such tests, perhaps as China continues to modernize.
“However, we still do not understand whether China intends to lay down such weapons,” he added.
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