The US’ top military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that tensions between China and Taiwan had “gone down” in recent months and that he believed the danger of armed conflict had been reduced.
Asked at a Washington conference on military leadership if China was still focused on intimidating Taiwan, he replied: “What I’ve seen with the election of a new government in Taiwan is that there is a more stable relationship between Taipei and Beijing.”
“In that regard, it seems to be moving in the right direction. We are still very clear on our one China policy in that what we want to see is a peaceful resolution between Taiwan and China over time,” he said.
Mullen said that the US had obligations to support Taiwan, that the US had fulfilled those obligations in the past and that “we will continue to do so.”
But turning to the longer term future he said that while “most of all” Washington wanted to see the China-Taiwan situation resolved peacefully
“When we think about conflict in that part of the world, that’s often very much on people’s minds,” he said.
The admiral stressed that the US-China military-to-military relationship — only recently restored after a long break triggered by US weapons sales to Taiwan — was of great importance.
He said that China was developing military technologies “very focused” on US capabilities, particularly aircraft carriers.
In addition, Mullen said, Beijing was building ballistic missiles, space and anti-satellite weapons “and they are heavily engaged in the cyber world and it’s a concern.”
“So, that issue is certainly one that we consistently address ... I’m just hopeful that we can have enough of a relationship with their military leaders to be able to talk with them about these challenges and address them and listen and also listen to their concerns,” Mullen said.
“On the one hand, they’re a growing country and certainly they have growing global requirements, even growing regional requirements,” he said. “I’m hoping that we can have enough of a relationship with them that we can avoid any serious conflict in the future. It’s a very stable region, generally speaking.”
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