Chinese warships will continue to patrol waters where Beijing has territorial claims, a top Chinese general said yesterday, amid simmering rows with neighboring countries over the South China Sea and islands controlled by Japan.
Chinese Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo (戚建國), deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), defended the patrols as legitimate and said his country’s sovereignty over the areas could not be disputed.
“Why are Chinese warships patrolling in East China Sea and South China Sea? I think we are all clear about this,” Qi told the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore.
Photo: Reuters
“Our attitude on the East China Sea and the South China Sea is that they are in our Chinese sovereignty. We are very clear about that,” he said through an interpreter. “So the Chinese warships and the patrolling activities are totally legitimate and uncontroversial.”
Qi was responding to a question from a delegate after he gave a speech in which he sought to assure neighboring countries that China has no hegemonic ambitions.
“China has never taken foreign expansion and military conquering as a state policy,” he said in his speech. “Although recently hot-spot issues in China’s neighboring area keep cropping up, we have always held that conflicts and disputes should be properly solved through dialogues, consultations and peaceful negotiations.”
However, one delegate said there appeared to be growing regional skepticism over China’s peaceful intentions because it was inconsistent with moves to send naval patrols to waters where other countries have also staked claims.
China is locked in a territorial dispute with Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea.
The four Southeast Asian states have partial claims, but China says it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, including waters and territories much closer to other countries and thousands of kilometers from the Chinese coast.
China, Japan and Taiwan also dispute the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, in the East China Sea.
Last month, Manila protested against what it called the “provocative and illegal presence” of a Chinese warship near Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), which is occupied by Philippine troops.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS