China’s defense minister delivered a volley of threats Sunday as he warned the world to let China do as it pleases... or pay a price.
China had stepped up its rhetoric against Taiwan after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in May.
On Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun took the blustering one step further during remarks at a conference in Singapore.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has always been an indestructible and powerful force in defense of the unification of the motherland, and it will act resolutely and forcefully at all times to curb the independence of Taiwan and to ensure that it never succeeds in its attempts,” Dong said, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.
“Whoever dares to split Taiwan from China will be crushed to pieces and suffer his own destruction,” he said.
China claims that Taiwan, the island to which China’s government fled in 1949 after losing power to Communist Mao Zedong, is rightfully part of its territory.
“We will take resolute actions to curb Taiwan independence and make sure such a plot never succeeds,” Dong said, according to CNN.
Dong criticized “external interfering forces” that sell Taiwan arms and have “illegal official contacts” with Taiwan in what appeared to be a reference to the United States, which has unofficial contacts with Taiwan and supports it with arms sales.
“China stays committed to peaceful reunification. However, this prospect is increasingly being eroded by separatists for Taiwan independence and foreign forces,” Dong warned.
Dong said Taiwan’s government is “pursuing separation in an incremental way. They are bent on erasing their Chinese identity of Taiwan and severing social, historical and cultural links across the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council called the comments “provocative and irrational.”
“Any… coercive actions that disregard public opinion run contrary to democracy and human rights, or any resort to war will eventually be counterproductive,” the council said in a statement, per CNN.
On Sunday, Dong also issued threats to anyone pushing back against China’s claims to the South China Sea, which are opposed by multiple nations, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“China has maintained sufficient restraint in the face of rights infringements and provocation, but there are limits to this,” Dong said.
National security expert professor Rory Medcalf said Dong’s speech was the "most pointedly intimidating speech" from a Chinese leader over the last 20 years.
"There was some very pointed remarks, threatening both Taiwan and the Philippines, and I think a lot of the audience went away with a sense that this was a new level of intimidation," he said, according to the ABC, calling the comments "particularly violent.”
"Traditionally, China has said the red line for military action against Taiwan is independence, and observers have always assumed that means that a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan would be the red line,” Medcalf said. "But what he's now saying is that there is a kind of incremental salami slicing-approach towards independence by the new Taiwanese leadership.”
