China's defense minister, General Li Shangfu in his first speech has expressed that a war between China and the US would bring an incredibly destructive and unbearable catastrophe to the world.
He made these remarks during a security
summit, where he also mentioned that certain countries were escalating an arms
race in Asia.
But he said the world was big enough for both
China and the US, and the two superpowers should seek common ground.
Earlier the US alleged "unsafe"
manoeuvres by a Chinese destroyer near a US warship in the Taiwan strait.
On Saturday the US navy said a Chinese
destroyer sailed "in an unsafe manner" near an American warship as it
transited the Taiwan Strait with Canadian vessels.
China criticised both countries for
"deliberately provoking risk". The US and Canada said they were
sailing where international law allows.
Gen Li, who became defence minister in March,
accused the US of a "Cold War mentality" and said this was
"greatly increasing security risks".
In his speech he said China would not allow
naval patrols by the US and its allies to be "a pretext to exercise hegemony
of navigation".
Asked about the incident in the Taiwan
Strait, he said only that countries from outside the region were raising
tensions.
He was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in
Singapore, the Asia-Pacific region's only annual security meeting.
Beijing has rejected a US request for direct
military talks in protest at sanctions placed on Gen Li by the US in 2018 over
weapons purchases from Russia.
At the Singapore summit, US Defence Secretary
Lloyd Austin rebuked China for refusing to hold military discussions.
Gen Austin and Gen Li shook hands and briefly
spoke at the event's opening dinner on Friday, but there was no substantive
exchange, reports say.
The Chinese defence minister's
"moderate" tone signals that talks with his US counterpart are
possible, but Washington has to lift sanctions against him, said Zhou Bo, a
retired officer of the People's Liberation Army.
Gen Li was sanctioned in 2018 over the
acquisition of military hardware from Russia. His five-year term as defence
minister started earlier this year, but the sanctions prevent him from
travelling to the US, and also make it difficult for him to invite Gen Austin
to China, Mr Zhou added.
"If the sanction is there, how can we
talk? The sanctions are very much consequential," said Mr Zhou, now a
senior fellow at Tsinghua University's Centre for International Security and
Strategy in Beijing.
Senior intelligence officials attended a
meeting of spy chiefs at the Singapore summit, according to Reuters.
Despite the diplomatic spat, a top US state
department official has arrived in Beijing for a week of wide-ranging talks.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have
been strained in recent years over several issues, including China's claim over
Taiwan, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
A high-ranking official of the People's
Liberation Army (PLA), Lt Gen Jing Jianfeng,, stated firmly that there is no
space for compromise regarding Taiwan. He also accused the United States of
interfering in the region.
Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of the
summit, he expressed concern that Washington's choice to deploy more troops on
a rotational basis in the area could escalate the possibility of a
confrontation.
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