China Warns of Risk of War Over Taiwan While Pledging Peace
- Defense chief Wei Fenghe responds to US at security gathering
- Vow to respect sovereignty faces skepticism after Ukraine war
A joint live fire exercise as part of the US-Philippines war exercises, in March 2022.
Photographer: Jes Aznar/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
China’s defense chief issued one of the country’s strongest warnings yet about the risk of war over Taiwan, even as he reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to maintain peace in Asia.
In a speech to the region’s biggest security conference Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe repeatedly expressed Beijing’s willingness to fight to prevent a formal split by the democratically elected government in Taipei. The remarks on Taiwan were part of a broader response to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s address a day earlier on the US’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which Wei blamed for pushing the two sides toward confrontation.