China warns US not to ‘play with fire’ on Taiwan as Hegseth brands Beijing ‘imminent’ threat
By Victor Jack - "Politico"
China on Sunday accused
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth of attempting to “sow division” in Asia, issuing a
fierce rebuke after the U.S. defense secretary said Beijing posed an “imminent”
threat to the region and was gearing up to invade Taiwan.
Hegseth on Saturday said
Beijing was “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to
alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.” Any effort to invade Taiwan
would “result in devastating consequences,” he added.
“There’s no reason to sugar coat it — the threat China
poses is real, and it could be imminent,” Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue
security conference in Singapore.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said Hegseth had “vilified
China with defamatory allegations” in a statement on
Sunday. The U.S. “should not play with fire” on
Taiwan, it warned.
Hegseth’s “remarks were filled with provocations and
intended to sow division. China deplores and firmly opposes them and has
protested strongly to the U.S.,” the ministry said.
The war of words comes amid rising tensions between
Washington and Beijing, as the two superpowers continue to face off in an
escalating trade war. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump accused
China of violating a truce on tariffs.
Though Taiwan split from China amid civil war in 1949,
Beijing considers the
self-ruled island of 23 million its “sacred territory” and hasn’t ruled out the
use of force in bringing the island under its control.
Australia pushed back against China’s criticism of
Hegseth. “What we have seen from China is the single biggest increase in
military capability and buildup in a conventional sense by any country since
the end of the Second World War,” the country’s Defense Minister Richard Marles
said on
Sunday.
At the same time, China — which did not send its
defense minister to the defense forum for
the first time in several years — on Saturday announced it
had sent out “combat readiness patrols” near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in
the South China Sea.
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(Victor Jack www.politico.eu)