The United States will maintain its capacity to resist any force that threatens the security of Taiwan, U.S. defense secretary Llyod J. Austin said on Saturday, as he warned of the “growing coercion” from Beijing.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Austin said that the Chinese communist regime has become “more coercive and aggressive” in its territorial claims, citing Beijing’s illegal maritime activities in the disputed South China Sea.
“We’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of unsafe aerial intercepts and confrontations at sea by PLA [People’s Liberation Army] aircraft and vessels,” he said, citing an incident in February when a PLA Navy ship directed a laser at an Australian warplane….