{"id":151795,"date":"2025-06-01T13:14:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/china-warns-us-not-to-play-with-fire-over-taiwan-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T13:14:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:14:56","slug":"china-warns-us-not-to-play-with-fire-over-taiwan-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/china-warns-us-not-to-play-with-fire-over-taiwan-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"China warns US not to \u2018play with fire\u2019 over Taiwan – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beijing says the US is touting Cold War mentality after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls China a threat to the region.<\/em>
China has warned the United States against \u201cplaying with fire\u201d over Taiwan in response to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling the Asian power a \u201cthreat to the region\u201d at a high-profile summit in Singapore.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue<\/a> on Saturday, Hegseth said China was \u201ccredibly preparing\u201d for military action to shift Asia\u2019s power balance, accusing Beijing of rehearsing a potential invasion of Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan, a separately governed island, to be a part of its territory and has vowed reunification by force<\/a> if necessary. Taiwan\u2019s government rejects Beijing\u2019s sovereignty claims, saying only the island\u2019s people can decide their future.
Hegseth\u2019s remarks provoked a swift rebuke from China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which stressed that Taiwan remains a domestic matter, warning foreign powers against using the issue as leverage. It described US actions in Asia Pacific as turning the region into a \u201cpowder keg\u201d.
\u201cThe US should not entertain illusions about using the Taiwan question as a bargaining chip to contain China, nor should it play with fire,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth had called on allies in the Asia Pacific region, including key security ally Australia, to spend more on defence after warning of the \u201creal and potentially imminent\u201d threat from China.
Calling the US a \u201ctrue destabilising\u201d force in the Asia Pacific, Beijing accused Washington of deploying offensive weapons in the South China Sea and aggravating regional tensions.
Beijing accused Hegseth of \u201cvilifying China with defamatory allegations\u201d and promoting a \u201cCold War mentality\u201d.
\u201cHegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a threat,\u201d the ministry said, adding that it had lodged a formal protest with the US over what it described as \u201cinflammatory rhetoric\u201d.<\/p>\n

China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coastguards as both vie to patrol the waters.
Beijing also rejected US claims about threats to maritime navigation, insisting it has consistently promoted dialogue to resolve regional disputes and safeguarded its territorial rights within the bounds of international law.
\u201cThe US is the biggest factor undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea,\u201d the statement read.
China\u2019s Defence Minister Dong Jun skipped the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia\u2019s premier security forum, with Beijing sending a delegation of lower-ranking representatives instead.
It was the first time since 2019 that China has not dispatched its defence minister to the high-level dialogue on regional defence, except when the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tensions are already high<\/a> between China and the US \u2013 the world\u2019s two biggest economic powers \u2013 over Trump\u2019s ongoing trade war and tariff threats.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beijing says the US is touting Cold War mentality after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls China a threat to the region.China has warned the United States against \u201cplaying with fire\u201d over Taiwan in response to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calling the Asian power a \u201cthreat to the region\u201d at a high-profile summit in Singapore.Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}