Singapore
CNN
—
Taiwan is slowly moving towards independence and those who support it will “end up self-destructing”, China’s new defence minister warned Sunday in a wide-ranging speech to a security summit in Singapore that laid bare the extent of regional tensions.
Defence Minister Tung Jun made the remarks in a roughly 30-minute speech that came days after China carried out large-scale military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan following the inauguration of the country’s new democratically elected president last month.
“We will take firm action to thwart Taiwan independence and ensure that such plots never succeed,” Tung said through an interpreter, accusing “external meddling forces” of selling arms to Taiwan and having “illegal official contacts” – an apparent reference to the United States, which maintains close informal ties with the island.
“China remains committed to peaceful reunification, but this prospect is increasingly undermined by separatists and foreign forces advocating Taiwan independence,” Dong warned.
His comments come amid growing concern in the region about military and economic threats to Taiwan by Beijing, which have become more pronounced under Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In a meeting with Tung on Friday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin urged China not to “use Taiwan’s political upheaval, which is part of a normal democratisation process, as a pretext for coercive measures”.
The Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan is a democracy despite never having ruled it, and has vowed to “reunify” it, even by force if necessary. Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, and his party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), are openly disliked by Beijing for their defense of Taiwanese sovereignty.
Lai supports maintaining the status quo and asserts that there is “no plan or need” to declare independence because “Taiwan is already an independent sovereign nation.” The United States also has longstanding policy not to support Taiwan independence or any unilateral changes to the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
“Taiwan’s DPP authorities are gradually pushing for separation. They want to erase Taiwan’s Chinese identity and sever social, historical and cultural ties across the Taiwan Strait,” Tung said, repeating Beijing’s rhetoric that they will be “nailed to the pillar of history’s shame”.
Public opinion polls show that an increasing number of Taiwanese residents, especially young people, identify themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and do not want to be part of China, which is an authoritarian one-party state that contrasts with Taiwan’s democracy. Currently, less than 10% support immediate or eventual unification, and only 3% identify as primarily Chinese, while 67% identify as primarily Taiwanese.
Dong, a former navy commander, was appointed to his current post following a surprise reshuffle at China’s defence ministry late last year and will be attending the Shangri-La Dialogue Security Summit for the first time.
The meeting came amid ongoing security confrontations across the region, with neighboring countries widely viewing China as using military force to assert its disputed territorial claims and seek to gain military superiority in a region that has deep security ties to the United States.
As China asserts its territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, its ships and aircraft have been widely documented patrolling and engaging in aggressive actions against other nations operating in international waters and airspace.
But Dong painted a different picture of China in his speech, describing it as a benevolent power that “does not act from a position of so-called strength” while implicitly criticizing the United States, saying “we will not allow anyone to bring geopolitical conflict or any war, whether hot or cold, into our region.”
China’s defense chief also said China’s restraint has “limits” when it comes to “provocations” in the South China Sea, appearing to refer to the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, although Dong did not directly name the Philippines.
Dong said “a country” had been “emboldened” by external forces and “carried out mediated provocations,” an indirect reference to the deployment of American missile systems during military exercises in the Philippines in April.
China has been militarising islands in the disputed South China Sea and in recent months its coast guard has fired water cannons to counter Philippine ships operating in the zone, further increasing tensions in the vital strategic waterway.
China claims historic rights to much of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal in The Hague against the Philippines’ claims.
Dong’s comments came after Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. condemned illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea at the opening of a Philippine defense forum in Singapore on Friday. He also warned that the death of Filipinos at the hands of other nations in the South China Sea would be “very close to an act of war.”
China’s defence minister also denied U.S. concerns that Chinese dual-use arms exports were strengthening Russia’s defence industrial base as it wages its war in Ukraine.
“We have never supplied weapons to either side in the conflict, we have strict controls on dual-use exports and have done nothing to add fuel to the fire,” Dong said.
The issue was raised during Dong’s meeting with US Foreign Minister Lloyd Austin, the first face-to-face meeting between US and Chinese defence officials since 2022, with Austin suggesting to China that there would be consequences if Beijing continued to back Russia militarily.
Dong said China is “positive about exchanges and cooperation with the U.S. military.”
The security forum, held annually in Singapore and organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, is a rare gathering of military officials from across the Asia-Pacific region, including geopolitical rivals and nations wary of one another.
This will also be a rare opportunity to listen to and ask questions of senior Chinese military officials.
Many of the questions directed to Dong by the delegation concerned China’s increasingly assertive stance across the region, and especially toward Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea.
Robert Ward, president of IISS Japan, told CNN he felt Dong’s tone was “higher-pitched” than previous speeches by Chinese defense ministers at the meeting.
“The strategic environment in Asia is indeed becoming more tense and I think that was illustrated by the speech today by the Chinese defence minister,” Ward said.
“This year has been much tougher than last year,” he added.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official gave the following assessment:
“Every year for the last three years, a new Chinese defense minister has visited Shangri-La,” the official told CNN, “and every year they have delivered speeches that are starkly at odds with the reality of the PLA’s coercive activities throughout the region. This year was no exception.”
