Any attempt by the United States to contain China or to interfere with Beijing in the Taiwan Strait or in the southern Chinese Sea is intended for bankruptcy. The Chinese defense minister said so, Dong Jun, During his first video call with the same counterpart, Pete Hegseth, held yesterday evening, September 9th. The official press agency “Xinhua” reports it today. The interview concerned the issues of Taiwan and the southern Chinese Sea, two of the main clutches between Beijing and Washington. “Any plan aimed at ‘using military force to encourage independence’ or use the Taiwan issue to contain China ‘will be foiled,” said Dong, adding that China “is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the southern Chinese Sea together with the countries of the region” and that “it firmly opposes the provocations and violations by some countries, external “. Dong reiterated that Beijing “has always focused on his development, defending his legitimate rights and interests with determination” and that “any attempt to contain, dissuade or interfere with China will fail”.
According to the report of the conversation provided by the Pentagon “the United States do not want a conflict with China, nor aim for a change of regime in Beijing, but have vital interests in the Asia-Pacific region and are ready to protect them with resoluteness”. Hegseth, reads in the report of yesterday’s conversation provided by the Pentagon, clarified that the US “do not seek conflict with China, nor do they pursue the change of regime or the strangulation of the People’s Republic of China”. At the same time, however, the secretary of the war recalled that the United States have “vital interests in Asia-Pacific”, theater defined as “priority”, “and will resolutely protect those interests”. Hegseth and Dong, more generally, exchanged opinions “in a candid and constructive way”, agreeing to deepen the discussions.
The interview took place less than a week by the great military parade organized by Beijing, during which Chinese leadership showed its most advanced armaments and invoked a multipolar world order as opposed to what the president Xi Jinping He defined international “bullying”. According to diplomatic sources, XI should meet the American counterpart in the coming months, Donald Trump. In the meantime, the military tensions between the two powers remain high. Last May, the defense secretary Hegseth had warned that the military threat posed by China “is real and could be imminent”, explaining to the Singapore Shangri-la Forum that Beijing “is preparing to be credible to a potential use of military force to alter the balance of power in the Indus-Pacific”. Dong had not taken part of this year’s forum, but in 2024 he had met Hegseth’s predecessor in Singapore, Lloyd Austin. Beijing had instead rejected an offer of meeting with the US Secretary of Defense last November, motivating the decision with the sale of US weapons in Taiwan.
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