In the wake of the Ukraine war, concerns are growing in Asia about a military conflict in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

China will not hesitate to start a war if "anyone tries to secede Taiwan from China," a ministry spokesman quoted Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe as saying, according to agency reports.

Till Fähnders

Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.

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The minister is said to have made the statement on Friday evening during a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

The two defense ministers met for the first time for bilateral talks on the fringes of the Shangri-La security dialogue in the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore.

A meeting had previously failed due to protocol issues, among other things, because the Chinese defense minister is ranked lower in his country's political hierarchy than the American one.

According to press reports, the Americans recently took the view that talks are more important than diplomatic subtleties.

The meeting was described as "professional and focused".

It was scheduled for 30 minutes but had lasted more than an hour.

The majority of the meeting was dedicated to the subject of Taiwan.

Asia's most important security conference in Singapore appeared to be a good opportunity for the two sides to meet.

It also gave the US Secretary the opportunity to reiterate the American perspective on the Taiwan issue in front of an international audience.

"Our policy hasn't changed, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to apply to the People's Republic of China," Austin said in his speech at Saturday's security dialogue.

He accused China of stepping up its "provocative and destabilizing" military activities near Taiwan, including a record number of Chinese fighter jets flying around Taiwan almost daily.

"East Asia could be the Ukraine of tomorrow"

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had previously expressed growing concerns in the region about a possible escalation.

"East Asia could be tomorrow's Ukraine," he warned in his speech at the opening of the forum in Singapore on Friday evening.

The Chinese defense minister is expected to respond to Austin's allegations in his speech scheduled for Sunday.

His threat to go to war if necessary was probably also a reaction to US President Joe Biden's recent warning in Tokyo that America had undertaken to provide military support to Taiwan in the event of an invasion.

The statement was then put into perspective by employees of the US government.

Lloyd Austin also tried to convey the impression of a continuous American policy on Taiwan.

The US is committed to maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Austin said.

But the US Secretary of Defense also criticized China's increasingly "aggressive" approach to territorial claims in other areas, such as the use of fishing boats in the East China Sea, the development of man-made islands into military bases in the South China Sea and a hardened position on the border with China India.

Austin also addressed recent incidents at sea and in the air over international waters where Chinese ships and fighter planes have been involved in dangerous confrontations.

"This should worry us all"

In February, for example, a Chinese Navy ship aimed a laser at an Australian patrol aircraft.

In addition, Chinese warplanes have disrupted flights of allied countries over the East and South China Seas.

"This should concern us all," Austin told several hundred defense policymakers, military personnel and security experts who traveled to Singapore, mostly from Asia.

Austin identified the Indo-Pacific as America's priority and pledged that the US would continue to increase its presence there.

He pointed out that the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is also having an impact on this region and drew a parallel with other possible trouble spots in the area.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample on the rules that protect us all," Austin said.

It's a taste of a world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.

The US wanted a region free from aggressiveness and bullying.

They wanted neither confrontation nor conflict, no Cold War, no Asian NATO and no region to be divided into enemy blocs.

America will defend its interests "without flinching".