Anyone daring to separate Taiwan from China to be 'crushed to pieces,' warns Chinese defense chief

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun on Sunday warned that anyone who dares to separate Taiwan from China would be “crushed to pieces” and destroyed.

Taiwan is the “core of core issues” for Beijing, local daily The Straits Times reported, citing Dong’s speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore.

Accusing Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive party of incrementally pursuing separatism and attempting to erase Chinese identity, he said, "They will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history."

China claims the self-ruled island as its territory.

“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,” he said.

Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have escalated since the new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing refers to as "separatist," took office on May 20.

The prospect of peaceful reunification with Taiwan is being increasingly “eroded” by “these separatists” and external forces, Dong added.

Three days later, China launched military drills near Taiwan.

Without naming a country but apparently hinting at the Philippines, the Chinese defense minister said "a certain country emboldened by outside powers" is to blame for tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

Chinese and Philippine coast guards have had recent dangerous encounters in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

He also accused “forces outside the region” of supporting these parties, a thinly veiled reference to the US.

China accuses the US of using the Philippines as a "pawn" to stir up trouble in the South China Sea.