Chinese Defense Minister Li Tells Foreign Militaries, ‘Mind Your Own Business’

[beijingwalker]

Chinese Defense Minister Li Tells Foreign Militaries, ‘Mind Your Own Business’​

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir
June 4, 2023 9:04 AM


Chinese defense minister Gen. Li Shangfu in April 2023. Russian Defense Ministry Photo

China’s Minister of National Defense warned foreign powers not to operate warships and aircraft close to its territorial waters and blamed Washington for recent provocative encounters between U.S. and Chinese units.

Gen. Li Shangfu, speaking on Sunday at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, singled out a Western policy he called “hegemony of navigation” as the provocation for Saturday’s incident in the Taiwan Strait between guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) and People’s Liberation Army Navy guided-missile destroyer CNS Suzhou (132) during a Taiwan Strait transit.

The best way to prevent similar incidents in the future was for naval vessels and fighter jets of countries to not carry out “close in actions” around other countries’ territories, he said.

“What’s the point of going there? For China, we always say mind your own business, take good care of your own vessels, your fighter jets, take good care of your own territorial airspace and waters, if that is the case, then I don’t think there will be future problems,” Li said in response to questions following his speech, “China’s New Security Initiatives.”

In contrast to international maritime law, China considers the Taiwan Strait an internal waterway and its own sovereign territory requiring prior permission for a warship to transit. Likewise, China claims sovereignty over significant portions of the South China Sea and East China Sea which are international waters and airspace under international law. The People’s Liberation Army routinely dispatches warships and fighter aircraft to intercept foreign military ships and aircraft based on violations of China’s territory.

Earlier in his speech, Li said other nations used the freedom of navigation and innocent passage as a pretext to exercise hegemony of navigation. The U.S. and its allies send warships and aircraft on freedom of navigation operations which test what Washington considers excessive territorial claims. Beijing has routinely called U.S. FONOps in the South China Sea destabilizing and provocative.

“As defense minister, every day, I see a lot of information about foreign vessels and fighter jets coming into areas near our territory,” Li said.

“They’re not here for innocent passage. They’re here for provocation.”

There have been several intercept incidents involving surveillance aircraft of the U.S., Australia and Canada with Chinese fighter aircraft in which the actions of the Chinese aircraft were deemed unsafe.

Video: A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon.
Embarked journalists captured the moment on video & witnessed the near collision.
“The fact this was announced over the radio prior to doing it clearly indicated it was intentional.” pic.twitter.com/cuksOabO15
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) June 3, 2023

For its part, Chinese warships and aircraft routinely operate near the territorial waters of neighbors like Japan and the Philippines. In the past, Chinese warships have exercised the right in innocent passage through U.S. territorial waters in the Aleutians Islands in Alaska. Under innocent passage, warships can pass through territorial waters at no notice “so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state,” according to Article 19 of the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention.

Li’s speech was his first address to an international audience since his appointment as Minister of National Defense on March 12. He spoke little about any new China security initiative save for a brief mention of China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) that was announced in February.

During the question and answer session, Li only stated on the GSI that he had meetings with defense officials of eleven countries during the Shangri-La Dialogue and that they had agreed that their militaries should have deeper and more extensive interactions and thus China with the purpose of promoting more peace and stability in the region.

Li’s speech followed a pattern of past Chinese speeches at the Shangri-La Dialogue that indirectly criticize the United States by referring to it as “some country” that has created trouble in the region. China, on the other hand, was committed to the path of peaceful development. Li also reiterated the People’s Liberation Army’s red line on Taiwan.

“If anyone dares to separate China from Taiwan, the Chinese military will not hesitate for a second. We will fear no opponents and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity at any cost,” Li said.

He said Beijing was open to military-to-military communication between Chinese and U.S. forces. The two countries and their militaries had smooth communication channels at lower levels but China had principles in regard to communication in that exchanges and communication had to be based on mutual respect without providing additional details.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John Aquilino had said several times there is a lack of communication between the U.S. and Chinese defense establishments. On Saturday, Austin called for China to open direct communication channels between the two countries’ defense and military leaders.

Neither Li nor Austin held any discussions during the Shangri-La Dialogue. The pair met briefly on the sidelines for a quick handshake.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Tells Foreign Militaries, ‘Mind Your Own Business' - USNI News

China’s Minister of National Defense warned foreign powers not to operate warships and aircraft close to its territorial waters and blamed Washington for recent provocative encounters between U.S. and Chinese units. Gen. Li Shangfu, speaking on Sunday at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in...

news.usni.org

 

[beijingwalker]

‘Mind your own business’: PRC defense minister to world, hours after PLAN ship rushes US destroyer​

"The big strategic goal is a Chinese-led international order, a Chinese century, where the US strategic primacy has ended. The US can basically move back to the Western Hemisphere and focus on itself, which is what he was saying," Malcom Davis, China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said.​

By COLIN CLARKon June 04, 2023 at 9:30 AM

PLA Gen. Li Shangfu, Chinese defense minister, peaks for the first time in public at Shangri La Dialogue 2023. IISS CEO John Chipman is to the right. (Credit: IISS)

SHANGRI-LA DIALOGUE — In his first public appearance, China’s defense minister left little doubt that his country’s military will continue to engage in what the US and other allies call dangerous and unprofessional behavior at sea and in the air, saying any foreign military should “mind its own business.”

The latest incident involved a US destroyer, the USS Chung-Hoon, which was doing a rare joint transit of the Taiwan Strait with a Canadian ship, the HMCS Montreal on Saturday. The incident was witnessed by a Canadian reporter on the Montreal, who reported “a People’s Liberation Navy ship picked up considerable speed and cut in front of the bow of the Chung-Hoon, a maneuver HMCS Montreal’s commander, Capt. Paul Mountford, called ‘not professional.'” The Canadian captain said the Chinese ship passed within 150 yards of the Chung-Hoon — a tiny distance for a fast-moving warship.

The Chinese action was deliberate, per the Canadian captain. “When the Chinese vessel altered its course, Mountford says the crew called the American ship and told them to move or there would be a collision. The Americans responded by asking the Chinese to stay clear of the ship, but the Chung-Hoon ultimately needed to alter course and slow down to avoid a crash.”

That close call came just days after a Chinese J-16 fighter jet flew in front of an American US RC-135, causing the RC-135 to rumble through the jet’s wake.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1664294498791309313

Pressed by speaker after speaker after his hour-long speech this morning to explain recent Chinese actions in the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea, Gen. Li Shangfu finally delivered an unequivocal answer when prodded by John Chapman, CEO of the Institute of International Strategic Studies.

“We have codes for sea and air reached with many other countries to prevent unnecessary dangers. But I want you to also raise a question. The incidents you mentioned, why did all those incidents happen in areas near China, not areas near other countries?” he asked. “To truly prevent such incidents in the future, we don’t only need the codes we have already have. The best way is for all the countries, especially the naval vessels and countries […] not to do closing actions around other countries’ territories. What’s the point in going there? For China, we always say, mind your own business.”

On top of that injunction, Li told the audience here that “some country” forced its rules on others, portraying international law as a sort of conspiracy by the West to hem China in. For its part, China is, according to Li, “committed to promoting cooperative, collective and common security in our region on the basis of mutual respect.” He said “fairness and justice should transcend the law of the jungle for countries big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, equal members of the international community.”

But, he said, “some country […] takes a selective approach to rules and international laws. It likes forcing its own rules on others… Its so-called rules-based international order never tells you what the rules are.” He did not mention the US by name.

So, the defense minister says the existing rules — which include the UN Charter, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the myriad websites about international law, its underpinnings, precedents and rulings by various bodies — aren’t fair. What would China do instead?

“Setting security rules does not mean reinventing the wheel or overturning the existing rules. Rather, countries should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and complement and refine existing rules to make the international order fairer and more equitable,” he averred.

He then presented a laundry list of initiatives China is pursuing through ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific organizations to “promote multilateral security mechanisms.” How these will be fundamentally different from the existing international order was unclear, except that China clearly believes it will have created a system with which it is more comfortable.

But fundamentally, Li made China’s position clear. It does not accept the current system and it wants other countries — mainly the United States — to leave its international waters and airways, Malcolm Davis, China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Breaking Defense after the speech.

“In effect, he’s saying, ‘China wants exclusive access to East Asian waters’ with the US Navy excluded,” Davis said. “In other words, China wants naval dominance and control. So much for cooperative security, and ‘win win.’”

China’s goal, Davis says, is even broader. “The big strategic goal is a Chinese-led international order, a Chinese century, where the US strategic primacy has ended. The US can basically move back to the Western Hemisphere and focus on itself, which is what he was saying. Then China sets the rules and China dominates the region. It is a Chinese dominated spirit. That’s what they want,” Davis said.

The US and many of its allies take part in Freedom of Navigation Operations, known as FONOPS, such as the one that just occurred in the Taiwan Strait.

The US Defense Department publishes an annual report on what the US says are “unlawful and sweeping excessive maritime claims — or incoherent legal theories of maritime entitlement” and lists each country and what their claims are.

“To ensure continued access by all countries to these areas, the US executes FONOPS designed to challenge coastal state maritime claims that unlawfully restrict navigation and overflight rights and freedoms and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms guaranteed in international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention,” the State Department says. “FONOPs demonstrate the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.” The DoD report can be found here.

Australia participates in Indo-Pacifc FONOPS, because the vast majority of its trade passes through waters that China contests. Breaking Defense asked Richard Marles, Australian defense minister, about Li’s injunction to “mind your own business.”

“Freedom of navigation for a trading country like Australia is absolutely essential to our national interest. And so we stand for the idea that there should be freedom of navigation on the high seas, and we obviously welcome the efforts of countries which Australia engages in as well, that assert the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Marles said. “But even where there are circumstances where countries have a disagreement about that, and militaries interact, it is so important that that interaction happens in a safe and professional way so that we do not see miscalculation, and we do not see accidents.

“Obviously, an accident in that context would be a disaster. And dialog is an important element to making sure that there is no misunderstanding and there are no accidents,” he said.

'Mind your own business': PRC defense minister to world, hours after PLAN ship rushes US destroyer - Breaking Defense

"The big strategic goal is a Chinese-led international order, a Chinese century, where the US strategic primacy has ended. The US can basically move back to the Western Hemisphere and focus on itself, which is what he was saying," Malcom Davis, China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy...

breakingdefense.com

 

[beijingwalker]

It seems that China is ready to call off US bluff now.

 

[Ali_Baba]

It seems that China is ready to call off US bluff now.

USA does not bluff - not when it comes to their favourite passtime activity.

 

[renhai]

USA does not bluff - not when it comes to their favourite passtime activity.

Yeah. Americans are as reliable as Turks. So what about Turkey's aero engines now? Has it received your certification?

 

[DF41]

It seems that China is ready to call off US bluff now.

 

[khansaheeb]

Chinese Defense Minister Li Tells Foreign Militaries, ‘Mind Your Own Business’​

By: Dzirhan Mahadzir
June 4, 2023 9:04 AM


Chinese defense minister Gen. Li Shangfu in April 2023. Russian Defense Ministry Photo

China’s Minister of National Defense warned foreign powers not to operate warships and aircraft close to its territorial waters and blamed Washington for recent provocative encounters between U.S. and Chinese units.

Gen. Li Shangfu, speaking on Sunday at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, singled out a Western policy he called “hegemony of navigation” as the provocation for Saturday’s incident in the Taiwan Strait between guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) and People’s Liberation Army Navy guided-missile destroyer CNS Suzhou (132) during a Taiwan Strait transit.

The best way to prevent similar incidents in the future was for naval vessels and fighter jets of countries to not carry out “close in actions” around other countries’ territories, he said.

“What’s the point of going there? For China, we always say mind your own business, take good care of your own vessels, your fighter jets, take good care of your own territorial airspace and waters, if that is the case, then I don’t think there will be future problems,” Li said in response to questions following his speech, “China’s New Security Initiatives.”

In contrast to international maritime law, China considers the Taiwan Strait an internal waterway and its own sovereign territory requiring prior permission for a warship to transit. Likewise, China claims sovereignty over significant portions of the South China Sea and East China Sea which are international waters and airspace under international law. The People’s Liberation Army routinely dispatches warships and fighter aircraft to intercept foreign military ships and aircraft based on violations of China’s territory.

Earlier in his speech, Li said other nations used the freedom of navigation and innocent passage as a pretext to exercise hegemony of navigation. The U.S. and its allies send warships and aircraft on freedom of navigation operations which test what Washington considers excessive territorial claims. Beijing has routinely called U.S. FONOps in the South China Sea destabilizing and provocative.

“As defense minister, every day, I see a lot of information about foreign vessels and fighter jets coming into areas near our territory,” Li said.

“They’re not here for innocent passage. They’re here for provocation.”

There have been several intercept incidents involving surveillance aircraft of the U.S., Australia and Canada with Chinese fighter aircraft in which the actions of the Chinese aircraft were deemed unsafe.



For its part, Chinese warships and aircraft routinely operate near the territorial waters of neighbors like Japan and the Philippines. In the past, Chinese warships have exercised the right in innocent passage through U.S. territorial waters in the Aleutians Islands in Alaska. Under innocent passage, warships can pass through territorial waters at no notice “so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state,” according to Article 19 of the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention.

Li’s speech was his first address to an international audience since his appointment as Minister of National Defense on March 12. He spoke little about any new China security initiative save for a brief mention of China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) that was announced in February.

During the question and answer session, Li only stated on the GSI that he had meetings with defense officials of eleven countries during the Shangri-La Dialogue and that they had agreed that their militaries should have deeper and more extensive interactions and thus China with the purpose of promoting more peace and stability in the region.

Li’s speech followed a pattern of past Chinese speeches at the Shangri-La Dialogue that indirectly criticize the United States by referring to it as “some country” that has created trouble in the region. China, on the other hand, was committed to the path of peaceful development. Li also reiterated the People’s Liberation Army’s red line on Taiwan.

“If anyone dares to separate China from Taiwan, the Chinese military will not hesitate for a second. We will fear no opponents and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity at any cost,” Li said.

He said Beijing was open to military-to-military communication between Chinese and U.S. forces. The two countries and their militaries had smooth communication channels at lower levels but China had principles in regard to communication in that exchanges and communication had to be based on mutual respect without providing additional details.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Adm. John Aquilino had said several times there is a lack of communication between the U.S. and Chinese defense establishments. On Saturday, Austin called for China to open direct communication channels between the two countries’ defense and military leaders.

Neither Li nor Austin held any discussions during the Shangri-La Dialogue. The pair met briefly on the sidelines for a quick handshake.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Tells Foreign Militaries, ‘Mind Your Own Business' - USNI News

China’s Minister of National Defense warned foreign powers not to operate warships and aircraft close to its territorial waters and blamed Washington for recent provocative encounters between U.S. and Chinese units. Gen. Li Shangfu, speaking on Sunday at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in...

news.usni.org

Little man big talk. Forgets who he is tangling with.

 

[etylo]

Little man big talk. Forgets who he is tangling with.

Of course, your 7 feet daddy is invincible to you.

 

[beijingwalker]

Little man big talk. Forgets who he is tangling with.

Douglas MacArthur used to talk big, did you know what happened to him?

 

[Joe Shearer]

Douglas MacArthur used to talk big, did you know what happened to him?

Good point.

It is to be hoped that this frog in a well that has come out of his well will follow MacArthur.

 

[REhorror]

B*lls of steel!

 

[James David]

Enough talk!!! Let's go to war already!!! Whohoo!!!

 

[khansaheeb]

Douglas MacArthur used to talk big, did you know what happened to him?

Douglas MacArthur's strategic achievements during the Korean War, including the successful retaking of Seoul and countering Chinese aggression, were significant. China could benefit from studying the lessons of the Korean War and observing the challenges faced by Russia in the Ukraine conflict. The United States possesses a formidable navy capable of swiftly neutralizing the Chinese Navy in the Taiwan Strait.

 

[khansaheeb]

Of course, your 7 feet daddy is invincible to you.

My 7 foot daddy is going to whip Chinese ar$e. China should stop bullying little Taiwan and let Taiwan be.

 

[etylo]

Douglas MacArthur's strategic achievements during the Korean War, including the successful retaking of Seoul and countering Chinese aggression, were significant. China could benefit from studying the lessons of the Korean War and observing the challenges faced by Russia in the Ukraine conflict. The United States possesses a formidable navy capable of swiftly neutralizing the Chinese Navy in the Taiwan Strait.

In your dream, in war time, US navy will not dare to get close to Taiwan strait. otherwise their whole fleet run the risk of being sink to bottom sea by Chinese missiles and fighters.

My 7 foot daddy is going to whip Chinese ar$e. China should stop bullying little Taiwan and Taiwan be.

In your dream you can cry as loud as you want to your daddy. Taiwan is Chinese matter, none concern of foreigners.