Shangri-La Dialogue: US and China in the same room but worlds apart on Taiwan, South China Sea

“So we’re stepping up planning and coordination, and training with our friends, from the East China Sea to the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean,” Austin said. “That includes staunch allies such as Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.”

He also said the US network of friendly countries in Asia would defend against coercion, especially in the Taiwan Strait.

The comments prompted Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng, vice chief of the Central Military Commission’s Joint Staff Department, to accuse the US of “hollowing out the one-China principle” by strengthening exchanges between US and Taiwanese officials, condoning Taiwanese separatist activities and selling lethal weapons to Taiwan.

“There’s only one China in the world, and Taiwan is a sacred and inalienable part of Chinese territory,” Jing said, stressing the one-China principle “represents the consensus of the international community”.

However, other countries have their own Taiwan policies, which do not entirely align with Beijing’s.

Most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. Washington, however, opposes any attempt to take the island by force.

As the conference gathered pace on Saturday, the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and the Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

The US Seventh Fleet said the transit showed the commitment of the US and its partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Jing said the frequent passages by US warships through the Taiwan Strait and Washington’s attempts to draw more countries in to “interfere” in the Taiwan issue had further encouraged the self-ruled island’s independence-leaning forces, forcing the People’s Liberation Army to step up its military exercises in the area.

“The PLA’s retaliatory military operations … targeting the Taiwan separatist activities and the interference of external forces … are completely justified, lawful and beyond reproach,” he said.

“The PLA has been fully prepared and ready to firmly defend China’s sovereignty, reunification and territorial integrity at any time.”

Another member of the Chinese delegation, Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo, from the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, also took aim at US military aid to Taiwan, saying it was “a plot” to “legalise” Washington’s intervention in the Taiwan issue.

“The US doesn’t want to see a stable Taiwan Strait because it wouldn’t fulfil the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy to let it send more troops and deploy more weapon systems to the region, while Taiwan would need to buy more US weapons,” Zhao said.

Jing, from the Central Military Commission, also objected to Austin’s accusation that a PLA aircraft engaged in “risky intercepts” in the South China Sea, a disputed waterway through which a large share of the world’s trade passes.

A few days before the conference, the Pentagon released footage of an “unprofessional interception” by a PLA J-16 fighter jet of an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane in the South China Sea, claiming the “provocative and dangerous actions are the root cause of maritime security issues”.

Jing said the Shandong aircraft carrier was conducting drills in the area and the US plane’s close-in reconnaissance warranted the expulsion.

“The PLA’s reaction was a necessary response to the provocation of certain countries, and was legal, justified, safe and professional,” he said.

Jing said the risk of a greater crisis would only grow as the US increased its deployment of weapons and troops to the region, and as it pressured external parties to “meddle in the regional issues”.