China “will not tolerate” attempts to pressure the People’s Liberation Army via interactions with its American counterparts, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian has indicated.
“Inter-army contacts between China and the United States are an important component of Chinese-American relations. We appreciate these ties, but in the process of interaction will adhere to our own principles,” Wu said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
Accusing “some representatives of the American side” of “persistently putting pressure on the PRC,” Wu stressed that the Chinese side would not simply “dutifully endure and tolerate” such pressure. “Naturally, we will strongly oppose it,” he said.
Wu also commented on the Pentagon’s stepped up military activity around China in recent days, calling these actions “provocative” and assuring that Beijing would “take rational, effective, safe and professional measures to counter the United States.”
Earlier this week, Sputnik reported on a buildup of US naval might in South Asia amid tensions related to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s possible trip to Taiwan in August during her broader tour of the region. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the Pentagon was developing contingency plans to ‘protect’ Pelosi if she makes good on plans to visit the island. China has long decried all forms of official interaction between US and Taiwanese officials. Pelosi is ranked as the third most powerful official in Washington, and would be tasked with taking up the presidency if something were to happen to Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Beijing has repeatedly decried the potential trip, and Chinese English-language media have recently warned that the visit would dramatically ramp up tensions, and have even recommended that PLA warplanes accompany Pelosi’s plane during her visit. This week, sources told the South China Morning Post that the PRC could even impose a no-fly zone to try to thwart the diplomatic tour.
White House officials have distanced themselves from Pelosi’s potential trip, saying the speaker makes her own decisions, and it’s up to her to decide the correct course of action. Earlier this month, President Biden told reporters that the US military didn’t think the visit would be a good idea. Taiwanese officials have warned that canceling the trip might have a “chilling effect” on the island’s security.
Chinese ‘Threat’
Also this week, US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley accused China of becoming an increasingly aggressive power, both in terms of rhetoric and military activity. In his Thursday press briefing, Wu warned all “rumor mongers” hyping up the so-called “China threat” that they would “have only one ending, and that is a total collapse.”
The Chinese MoD spokesman suggested there were two main reasons for US officials to make statements about the danger purportedly posed by the PRC and its military. “The first is to make excuses for [the US’s] own military development through hyping up threats. The second is to smear China to serve its strategic purpose of containing and suppressing the nation,” he said.
Wu assured that the PLA is and will remain a “staunch force for safeguarding world peace,” and that “the development and growth of the Chinese military cannot be changed by any others’ will, and no force can stop it.”