Home World Beijing demands that Washington stop “wrong words and actions”

Beijing demands that Washington stop “wrong words and actions”

Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe demanded on Thursday that the United States stop its “wrong words and actions” during a phone call with its American counterpart, Mark Esper, the New China news agency said.

The United States and China are on an escalation of tension and today’s call between Wei and Esper was one of the few direct talks between senior officials from both governments since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, which has been the subject of deep disagreements policies.

According to a statement by the Chinese defense minister, quoted by the New China agency, Wei Fenghe “demanded that the United States end its wrong words and actions”.

In response, Mark Esper expressed concern about China’s destabilizing activities in the maritime zone near Taiwan, in the South China Sea, according to Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

During the phone call, which lasted an hour and a half, the topic of Taiwan was central to the conversation between the two senior officials, on the eve of a visit by the US Secretary of Health, Alex Azar, to this territory, which should happen soon .

Azar’s visit is being read as a provocation by Beijing, which invokes Taiwan as part of Chinese territory and opposes any link between the island’s authorities and foreign governments.

Last Thursday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, had promised “firm and vigorous retaliation” for the visit of the US Secretary of Health to Taiwan.

The Pentagon chief took advantage of the conversation with Wei to convey the need for “China to respect international laws, rules and standards, fulfilling its commitments,” according to Hoffman’s report.

Esper, who announced his intention to visit China by the end of this year, also recalled the need to establish “constructive, stable and productive defense relations between the United States and China,” according to the Pentagon spokesman. .

No date has yet been set for this Esper trip, which will be the first for a defense secretary since Jim Mattis’s visit to Beijing in June 2018.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Defense of China, Wei Fenghe also called on Washington to “strengthen its risk management at sea and avoid taking dangerous initiatives that could cause an escalation of tensions and maintain regional peace and stability”.

Contact Us

Generalist media, focusing on the relationship between Portuguese-speaking countries and China.

Plataforma Studio

Newsletter

Subscribe Plataforma Newsletter to keep up with everything!