WASHINGTON (Portal) – US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Sunday he sees no imminent invasion of Taiwan by China but said China is trying to establish a “new normal” with its military activities around the island.
A visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in early August infuriated China, which responded by conducting military drills near the island. These continued, albeit on a much reduced scale.
“I don’t see any invasion coming,” Austin said in an interview aired on CNN.
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“What we are seeing is China moving to establish what we would call a new normal. Increased activity – we’ve seen a number of their planes crossing the Taiwan Strait centerline. This number has increased over time. We’ve seen more activity with their surface vessels and waters in and around Taiwan.”
The United States and its allies have responded to the drills by continuing to sail the region. A US Navy warship and a Canadian frigate made a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait on September 20.
The United States will continue to work with its allies and partners “to ensure that we maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Austin said in an interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS recorded Friday.
The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated ROC government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists who founded the People’s Republic of China.
The United States is working to reopen channels of military communications with China, which is critical for both countries, Austin said.
China halted cooperation with the United States in a number of areas, including dialogue between senior military commanders, in August in retaliation for Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Austin said he communicated by phone and in person with his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, who agreed open communication was important.
“We will do everything we can to keep signaling that we want these channels to be opened, and I hope that China will start to lean forward a little more and work with us,” he said.
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Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Grant McCool
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