China's Taiwan Affairs Office has called dangerous comments by US Under-Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who suggested the Australia-UK-US AUCUS submarine project could help deter any Chinese moves against Taiwan, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
"His remarks are very dangerous," spokesman Zhu Fengliang said in response to a question during the weekly press conference. "The establishment of the so-called trilateral security partnership between the US, Britain and Australia essentially aims to provoke a military confrontation in the region through military cooperation in small circles," he added.
Campbell, who last week made a rare connection between Taiwan and AUCUS, told the Washington-based think tank Center for a New American Security that the submarines' new capabilities would bolster peace and stability, including in the strait that separates China and Taiwan, Reuters recalls.
"Any attempt to use relevant military cooperation to intervene in the Taiwan issue means interfering in China's internal affairs, violating the one-China principle, and endangering the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait. We firmly oppose this," Zhu said.
The US, UK and Australia created the AUCUS defense pact in 2021 as part of their efforts to counter China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Beijing has called AUCUS dangerous and warned that it could lead to the stimulation of a regional arms race.
Both China and Taiwan, a democratically-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory, claim most of the South China Sea.
In recent years, China has greatly expanded its arsenal of warships and missiles and carried out extensive land reclamation on its islands in the South China Sea, building large military and air force facilities, which has caused great concern in Washington and across the region, Reuters noted.