US Chides China Over Defense Talks as Navy Sails by Taiwan
- ‘Conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating’: Austin
- Austin, China’s Li Shangfu shook hands at Shangri-La Dialogue
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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used a speech at Asia’s biggest security conference to warn that a conflict over Taiwan would “affect the global economy in ways that we cannot imagine” and he reiterated calls for greater communication between the American and Chinese militaries.
“Make no mistake: conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating,” Austin said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday. “The whole world has a stake in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the whole world. The security of commercial shipping lanes and global supply chains depends on it.”