Syawalludin Zain and David Rising, The Associated Press Published Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 10:43 PM EDT
SINGAPORE (AP) – China’s Defense Minister on Sunday accused the United States of trying to “hijack” the support of countries in the Asia-Pacific region to turn them against Beijing, saying Washington seeks to advance their own interests “in the guise of multilateralism.”
Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe attacked U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, dismissing his “defamatory accusation” the day before the Shangri-La dialogue that China was causing instability with his claim of autonomous island of Taiwan and its “destabilizing military activity” in the area.
Austin had stressed the need for multilateral partnerships with the Indo-Pacific nations, which Wei suggested was an attempt to get China to a corner.
“No country should impose its will on others or intimidate others under the guise of multilateralism,” he said. “The strategy is an attempt to build an exclusive small group in the name of a free and open Indo-Pacific to hijack countries in our region and target a specific country; it is a strategy to create conflicts and confrontations to contain and encircle the others. “
China has been rapidly modernizing its military and has sought to expand its influence and ambitions in the region, has recently signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands that many fear could lead to a Chinese naval base in the Pacific, and has begun last week with a project to expand the naval port in Cambodia that could give Beijing a foothold in the Gulf of Thailand.
Last year, U.S. officials accused China of testing a hypersonic missile, a more difficult weapon to counter for missile defense systems, but China insisted it had been a “routine test of a spaceship “.
In response to a question about Sunday’s test, Wei was closer so far to acknowledging that it was, in fact, a hypersonic missile, saying, “As far as hypersonic weapons are concerned, many countries are developing weapons and I think No wonder China does. ”
“China will develop its army,” he added. “I think it’s natural.”
The uprising was reported from Bangkok. Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Caroline Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.