China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun on Sunday warned that his country will take “resolute actions” to curb any move toward Taiwan independence, pushing Beijing’s claim on the territory amid high tensions with the U.S. and the new government in Taipei.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore, Dong slammed Taiwan’s pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party for pursuing what he called “separation in an incremental way.” The DPP’s Lai Ching-te, who won the presidential election in January, was sworn in on May 20, after which China launched two days of military “punishment” drills encircling Taiwan and its outlying islands.
The admiral accused the DPP of “erasing the Chinese identity of Taiwan,” as well as severing social, historical and cultural links across the strait. He labeled the DPP’s leaders separatists who “will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history.”
Lai, while saying that the two sides are “not subordinate” to each other, has pledged to maintain the status quo and offered talks with Beijing.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will remain a strong force for upholding national reunification,” Dong cautioned. “Anyone who dares to separate Taiwan from China will only end up in self-destruction.”
Without naming the U.S., the minister called out “external interfering forces” for continuing to sell arms to Taiwan while having “illegal official contacts” with the island. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China — it is a province of China,” Dong said in his address. “We will and must realize its reunification, but we are committed to peaceful reunification.”
The Communist Party government in Beijing claims the island of 23.5 million people even though it has not controlled it, refusing to rule out an invasion. Many Taiwanese see themselves as distinct from the Chinese mainland, and Lai’s presidential victory was widely seen as an affirmation of that.
