Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a strong warning to China at an event on Saturday saying the United States will not allow its efforts to reshape the region.
“The People’s Republic of China is the only country with the will and increasingly the power to reshape its region and the international order to suit its authoritarian preferences,” Austin said during a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “So let me be clear: we will not let that happen.”
Austin added that the United States is “aligning our budget like never before with the challenge of China.”
“The department is putting its focus, its time and its money, where its mouth is, so we are pairing our investments with new operating concepts fit for 21st century deterrence in the Indo-Pacific,” Austin said.
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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends a news conference after a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the US Army’s Ramstein Air Base on September 8, 2022. .
(Thomas Niedermuller/Getty Images)
In a recent meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Austin says he “underscored” the “serious concerns” the United States has with the “increasingly dangerous behavior” exhibited by Chinese planes flying over disputed territory in the region.
“I have made it clear that the United States will continue to fly, navigate and operate where international law allows,” Austin said.
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US President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, in Nusa Dua. , Bali, Indonesia.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
On Monday, the Pentagon released an annual China security report that warned Beijing would likely have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035, with no clarity on how China would seek to use them.
“These next few years will set the terms of our competition with the People’s Republic of China. They will shape the future of security in Europe,” Austin said. “And they will determine whether our children and grandchildren inherit an open world of rules and rights, or face emboldened autocrats who seek to rule by force and fear.”
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A Chinese military plane flies over Pingtan Island, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province on August 6, 2022.
(Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
Austin’s harsh words toward the Chinese communist government follow criticism by President Biden for statements that appear to contradict the official US government stance of respecting the traditional “One China” policy that recognizes Beijing as the sole government. of China and relegates Taiwan to just an informal diplomat. condition.
The White House was forced to walk back a comment by the president in September when he stated that the United States would defend Taiwan in any attack by China.
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Biden opposed China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive” policy actions towards Taiwan in a recent conversation with Xi, according to a summary provided by the White House.
China has repeatedly threatened to take Taiwan by force and has held extensive military exercises around the island in recent months. Taiwan seceded from mainland China in 1949 after Democratic forces lost a civil war against the Chinese Communist Party and fled to the island.
Anders Hagstrom of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
