\n
BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China has demanded the U.S. cease military \u201ccollusion\u201d with Taiwan during a virtual meeting between the joint chiefs of staff from the two countries whose relationship has grown increasingly fractious.<\/p>\n
Gen. Li Zuocheng told Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday that China had \u201cno room for compromise\u201d on issues affecting its \u201ccore interests,\u201d which include self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina demands the U.S. … cease reversing history, cease U.S.-Taiwan military collusion and avoid impacting China-U.S. ties and stability in the Taiwan Strait,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n
The Chinese military would \u201cresolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anyone creates a wanton provocation, they will be met with the firm counterattack from the Chinese people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such language is fairly routine and Li was also quoted in a Defense Ministry news release saying China hoped to \u201cfurther strengthen dialogue, handle risks, and promote cooperation, rather than deliberately creating confrontation, provoking incidents and becoming mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting follows fiery comments by Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe at a regional security conference last month that was also attended by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.<\/p>\n
Wei accused the United States of trying to \u201chijack\u201d the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington is seeking to advance its own interests \u201cunder the guise of multilateralism.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same meeting in Singapore, Austin said China was causing instability with its claim to Taiwan and its increased military activity in the area.<\/p>\n
And in May, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called China the \u201cmost serious long-term challenge to the international order\u201d for the United States, with its claims to Taiwan and efforts to dominate the strategic South China Sea, prompting an angry response from Beijing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and its allies have responded with what they term \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d patrols in the South China Sea, prompting angry responses from Beijing.<\/p>\n
Despite not having formal diplomatic relations in deference to Beijing, Washington remains Taiwan\u2019s chief ally and supplier of defense weapons. U.S. law requires the government to treat all threats to the island as matters of \u201cgrave concern,\u201d although it remains ambiguous on whether the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.<\/p>\n
The latest round of heated rhetoric comes ahead of a meeting between Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Saturday at a gathering of foreign ministers from the G20 bloc of industrialized nations in Indonesia that is expected to be overshadowed by disagreements over Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
China has refused to criticize Moscow\u2019s aggression or even term it an invasion, while condemning Western sanctions against Russia and accusing the U.S. and NATO of provoking the conflict.<\/p>\n
Along with Taiwan and the South China Sea, Washington and Beijing are also at odds over trade, human rights and China\u2019s policies in Tibet and toward mainly Muslim Turkic minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China has demanded the U.S. cease military \u201ccollusion\u201d with Taiwan during a virtual meeting between the joint chiefs of staff from the two countries whose relationship has grown increasingly fractious. Gen. Li Zuocheng told Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday that China had \u201cno room for compromise\u201d on issues affecting its \u201ccore interests,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-194978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}