After China’s defense minister told his US counterpart that Taiwan is an indivisible part of China, Taiwan has hit back by accusing China of “cognitive warfare”.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Feng-he over the phone on Wednesday.
Following that call, Taiwan’s foreign ministry says China made a “deliberately misleading” statement about the conversation on China’s defense ministry website. China’s summary of the meeting says the United States “stands by its One China policy”. In Taipei’s view, Beijing is implying the US agrees that Taiwan is part of China.
The US does, in fact, have a One China policy. But that policy only “acknowledges” China’s claim to sovereignty over Taiwan. For its part, the United States considers Taiwan’s status unsettled.
In recent years, Taiwan says it has faced so-called “gray zone” tactics from China. That means tactics designed to undermine morale and chip away at military resources, without triggering an all-out war. Taiwan says Beijing’s cognitive warfare aims to wear away Taiwan’s resistance to a future takeover by China.