US 'Synchronized' Taiwan Strait Incident With Shangri-La Dialogue to Pressure Beijing
Subscribe
The US has stepped up its provocative “freedom of navigation” operations in recent years, claiming it is enforcing a treaty, the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which Washington itself refuses to ratify. Off the coast of China, these maneuvers have led to several dangerous incidents.
On Sunday, the US and Canada sent a pair of guided-missile destroyers through the Taiwan Strait, a waterway that Beijing regards as internal, and through which it sees the passage of US warships as provocative. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sent forces to shadow the two warships, including the Type 052 destroyer Suzhou, which crossed in front of the US Navy’s USS Chung-Hoon at a distance of 137 meters in what Beijing said was a safe and legal maneuver, while Washington denounced it as “unsafe” and “coercion.”
Alexei Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, an expert at the Valdai International Discussion Club, told Sputnik on Monday that the Taiwan Strait incursion was “completely synchronized” with the Shangri-La Dialogue meeting in Singapore in order to put political and military pressure on China.
“It was impossible to find a worse time for conducting US-Canadian exercises than before the security meeting in Singapore,” he said. “We see that the Americans are not just trying to create a new anti-Chinese coalition, they have been doing this for a long time. They [like to] show their military strength.”
“Their actions at sea are completely synchronized with the meeting in Singapore against the background of the refusal of the Chinese side to conduct at least some negotiations with US Secretary of Defense” Lloyd Austin, Maslov said, noting that despite this, Li is “actively negotiating” with his European counterparts. The Chinese refusal to meet with Austin stems from US sanctions levied against Li for securing the purchase of Russian-made weapons systems.
“Besides, China never received any positive word from the US on Taiwan on the eve of the Shangri-La Dialogue in terms of attempts to improve relations. Therefore, now China has taken an absolutely reasonable position. [China] doesn't talk to the US about military issues when they try to downgrade relations literally on a daily basis.”
“China has shown that it is not only not ready to silently endure pressure, but will respond with sharp attacks. It was no accident that a Chinese ship [interacted with] an American missile destroyer and then a Canadian frigate. If earlier China was limited to statements by the Foreign Ministry, now China is hinting harshly at the possibility of using military force to protect its interests,” he said.
30 May 2023, 16:26 GMT
Dr. Qian Yaxu, an expert from the Center for Regional and Country Studies of China Southwestern University of Communications, told Sputnik that “China has the potential to protect its sovereignty and its interests from actions and practices that tread on its red lines.”
Qian recalled that on Sunday, Li told attendees at the Shangri-La Dialogue that “a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US would be an unbearable disaster for the world” and that China “believes that a big power should behave like one, instead of provoking bloc confrontation for self-interest.”
“The Chinese Defense Minister reassured neighboring countries. He ruined the US attempts to discredit China, exposed it as a threat to regional security, and showed that China is a peacefully rising great power,” Qian said.
“China's position on security issues has always been clear and consistent. It regards countries that promote regional and global security cooperation as its friends. However, China has the potential to protect its sovereignty and interests from actions and practices that violate its ‘red lines.’”
“The main priority of Minister Li Shangfu's speech was undoubtedly to clarify his position on the global security situation [and] raising global awareness of the community of a shared future in Asia-Pacific. The Pacific region is a public product proposed by China. China's proposal for a community of a common future in the Asia-Pacific region promotes peaceful development and meets the common interests of the region and all mankind.”
“The Taiwan question is undoubtedly the main one for China, and China will resolutely uphold its fundamental national interests in this matter. The United States never understood China's statement about the essence of its position on Taiwan, so China reiterated that the defense of its own sovereignty and the last step in the field of national liberation will definitely be completed.”
An island that was for centuries part of China, Taiwan was seized as a colony by the Japanese for several decades before being returned to Beijing’s control at the end of World War II. Four years later, the defeated Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan as the communist Red Army seized control over the mainland and founded a socialist government in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan has been self-governed ever since, thanks to weapons and support funneled to Taipei from Washington, even though the US recognizes Beijing’s position that there is one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.
"In Singapore, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu made his first international appearance since his appointment in March. He focused on the three foundations of Chinese diplomacy, on which the correct reaction of the United States and its allies will depend on sustainable security and stability in Asia."
“One of them [is that] China and the US need to resolve differences properly, overcome difficulties and find the right way to get along with each other,” Qian explained. “Another is the inadmissibility of undermining the steady trend of increasing stability in the South China Sea. According to the minister, individual non-regional countries under the guise of ‘freedom of navigation’ impose ‘hegemony of navigation’. They want to stir up the South China Sea so they can fish in troubled waters."
“Finally, the minister also noted that the reunification of China is the dominant historical trend and [is an] unstoppable course of events,” Qian said, recalling Li’s words: “That, how to solve the Taiwan issue, we, the Chinese, will decide. This issue does not tolerate the intervention of foreign forces.”
