China’s defense leader justifies ‘risky’ military actions against US military.

Chinese Defense Minister Defends Aggressive Military Maneuvers Against US

The Chinese defense minister defended the People’s Liberation Army’s aggressive military maneuvers recently made toward United States military personnel in the region.

Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu said a recent aerial intercept and aggression toward a U.S. vessel in the Taiwan Strait were responses to provocations.

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While speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, he said the USS Chung-Hoon and HMCS Montreal cannot be considered “innocent passage” and said that foreign militaries should “mind your own business,” according to Military Times.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the vessel was conducting a routine south-to-north Taiwan Strait transit on June 3 when the Chinese Navy’s LUYANG III DDG 132 “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon.“

The Chinese naval vessel approached and ultimately twice crossed in front of the U.S. ship, forcing it to slow down to avoid a collision.

The incident took place less than two weeks after a Chinese fighter pilot flew directly in front of the nose of a U.S. Air Force RC-135, forcing the U.S. aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence, over the South China Sea, which USINDOPACOM described as “an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin briefly met with Li at the summit, but the two did not exchange a substantive conversation, according to Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder. The Chinese have largely ignored senior U.S. defense officials’ requests for communication in recent months.

“Secretary Austin and PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu spoke briefly at tonight’s opening dinner of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore,” Ryder said in a statement. “The two leaders shook hands, but did not have a substantive exchange.”

The Chinese denied a request from the U.S. for a meeting between the two leaders to occur at the conference.

Their decision to deny a Li-Austin meeting was “unfortunate,” the U.S. defense secretary said, while a senior defense official told the Washington Examiner earlier, “This is far from the first time that the PRC has rejected invitations to communicate from the Secretary, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or other Department officials. Frankly, it’s just the latest in a litany of excuses. Since 2021, the PRC has declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests.”

A top U.S. defense official said that their recent silence is a ploy to spook the U.S. into leaving the region, which largely began after the infamous Chinese surveillance balloon sailed over the continental U.S., including flying over sensitive military locations in late February and early March. Beijing maintained this was a weather balloon and not an intelligence-gathering object, while U.S. officials maintained their stance.

“And [Chinese officials take the view] that if we want to avoid crises, there’s a simple solution, and that’s just to get out of the Western Pacific, and to abandon our alliances and partnerships, and leave,” the Pentagon’s Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, told Foreign Policy. “And leave that part of the world to be an exclusive sphere of influence lorded over by Beijing.”

The Pentagon views China as its “pacing challenge” and describes the People’s Liberation Army or PLA as the only power that has the intent and capability to reshape the international order in its favor. China’s military has aggressively modernized and expanded in recent years, while top officials have noted a willingness to take Taiwan, the independent island it considers a part of its country, by force in coming years.

Key Points:

• Chinese Defense Minister defends aggressive military maneuvers against US
• US vessel was conducting a routine south-to-north Taiwan Strait transit when the Chinese Navy’s LUYANG III DDG 132 “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon.“
• Chinese officials take the view that the US should leave the Western Pacific and abandon its alliances and partnerships
• The Pentagon views China as its “pacing challenge” and describes the People’s Liberation Army or PLA as the only power that has the intent and capability to reshape the international order in its favor

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