UPDATE - China won’t allow anyone to bring geopolitical conflict to Asia-Pacific: Defense Minister

UPDATES WITH DEFENSE MINISTER'S QUOTES, CHANGES LEDE, HEADLINE, DECK, NUMEROUS CHANGES THROUGHOUT

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – China on Sunday said it will not allow "anyone" to bring geopolitical conflict to the region, accusing the US of causing friction with its support for Taiwan and the Philippines.

China will not allow any country to ignite wars in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun told an international security conference in Singapore on Sunday.

“We will not allow hegemony and power politics to harm the Asia-Pacific. Nor will we allow geopolitical conflicts, cold wars, or hot wars to be introduced into the Asia-Pacific. Nor will we allow any country or any force to create war and chaos here,” Dong told the Shangri-La Dialogue, English daily South China Morning Post reported.

His remarks followed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's Saturday speech commending a “new convergence” in the Indo-Pacific, as Washington fortifies strategic and security partnerships in the region.

"We countries in the Asia-Pacific have the ability to resolve tensions among ourselves; we despise coercion from outside hegemonic powers," Dong said, in a thinly veiled response to Austin's remarks.

He said the Chinese military will take a more open approach and work with the militaries in countries of the region to build a new type of security partnership featuring equality, mutual trust and "win-win" cooperation.

He added that nuclear war cannot be won and "must never be fought."

On the Russia-Ukraine war, he said China has been promoting peace talks with a responsible attitude towards the crisis.

China has never provided weapons to either party in the Ukraine crisis, Dong said.

- Taiwan 'core of core issues'

Dong 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, he said.

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 calls "separatist," took office last month.

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

Three days after Lai took office, 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.

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