China intensified on Thursday its rhetoric aimed at Taiwan and said its independence would result in war.
Reuters reported that Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian was giving his monthly news conference when the issue turned to regional tensions.
Taipei accused Beijing of flying a dozen military jets in its airspace on Sunday in an act of intimidation. American observers said China plans to test President Joe Biden, who had taken an oath a few days earlier.
Wu said that “military activities” in the Taiwan Strait “are necessary actions to deal with the current security situation” and then he warned: “Those who play with fire will get burnt and ‘Taiwan independence’ means war”.
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Taiwan and China parted ways in the midst of a civil war in 1949 and China says it is determined to bring the island under its control by force, if necessary. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but is legally obliged to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself and that the autonomous democratic island enjoys strong bipartisan support in Washington.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a confirmation hearing on Tuesday that “there is no doubt” that China represents any nation’s greatest threat to the United States and that the Trump administration was right to take a tougher stance against Asian power.
“President Trump was right to take a tougher approach to China,” said Blinken, who served as national security adviser to then Vice President Biden before being promoted to Deputy Secretary of State for Barack Obama. “Not in the way he did it in many ways, but the basic principle was right.”
Fox News’ Morgan Phillips and the Associated Press contributed to this report