Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun warned this Sunday, June 2, that Beijing “will act with determination and force” to prevent Taiwan’s independence, and firmly reaffirmed the sovereignty claimed by China over the island. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has always been an indestructible and powerful force in defending the unification of the motherland, and it will act with determination and force at all times to curb Taiwan’s independence and ensure that “It never succeeds in its attempts,” he said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major security forum in Singapore.
The Chinese official also warned that Beijing’s restraint in the South China Sea had “limits”, following a series of skirmishes between Chinese and Filipino ships in a contested area. “China has shown sufficient restraint in the face of rights violations and provocations, but there are limits to this,” the minister said. Chinese coast guard ships have used water cannons against Philippine boats several times in waters that Beijing almost entirely claims, and collisions have injured several Filipino soldiers.
The exchanges came two days after Dong Jun met with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for the first substantive talks between the two countries’ defense chiefs in 18 months. “We have always been open to exchanges and cooperation, but this requires the two sides to meet each other halfway,” he said. “We believe we need more exchanges precisely because there are differences between our two militaries.”
“Stabilization” of Sino-American relations
The two defense officials spoke for more than an hour on Friday in the hotel hosting the forum, which is attended by defense officials from around the world – including Volodymyr Zelensky who is due to speak there this Sunday – and which has become, in recent years, a barometer of relations between the United States and China.
After the meeting, Lloyd Austin said that telephone conversations between American and Chinese military commanders would resume “in the coming months.” He thus “reaffirmed” the commitment made by Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping during a summit in San Francisco, in November 2023, to resume telephone conversations at commander level in the coming months.
Beijing, for its part, welcomed the “stabilization” of relations between the two countries.