Category: General

Cambodian Defense Ministry Director-General Chau Phirun and Navy Commander Tea Vinh were designated for U.S. sanctions on Wednesday under the Magnitsky Act. The U.S. Treasury Department accused the pair of conspiring to illegally profit from the refurbishment of Ream Naval Base, near Sihanoukville. On Thursday, Chau Phirun denied the allegations, which came amid longstanding U.S. suspicions that a secret treaty had been signed granting the Chinese navy use of the base for 30 years – claims Phnom Penh has denounced as “fake news.” In an interview with RFA’s Khmer Service Thursday, Chau Phirun strenuously denied he had profited from the construction of the based. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

RFA: The US has recently sanctioned you and General Tea Vinh in regard to serious corruptions you involved in the upgrade of the Ream Naval Base facilities. How would you respond to such accusation?

Chau Phirun: I do not have anything to seriously explain with regard to the U.S. accusation. I just think that such accusation is far from being true and that it was made without any actual written evidence on my case. I am a general at Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense and I am entrusted with the duties to manage and oversee the so-called project for the modernization of the Ream Naval Base. I simply think that a country that has the utmost power in the world and turns to impose sanctions or blacklist on a person or national of any country like myself, a Khmer citizen, it is not the right thing to do. I am working for our Khmer nationals and Khmer interests. The thing is that the Cambodian government and the Ministry of National Defense appointed me to carry out such work. And it happens that the U.S. is not happy with this issue and turns to impose sanctions on me. I think I have never done any wrongdoings in terms of either exploitation, conspiracy or collusion with the Chinese. Neither had I ever committed any acts of corruption at all. So I think it is not right.

RFA: Does this mean that you have not used your political influence or power in your position as a general in charge of managing the modernization project of the Ream Naval Base? And you did not exploit this project for personal gains as has been described by the U.S. Treasury Department? 

Chau Phirun:I do not think that such accusation is right at all. We held bilateral discussions with [the Chinese counterparts] in regard to this construction project and there are always concrete studies on the construction plan and proper assessments. It has gone through a proper financial audit. I am just the manager of that project. By accusing me of conspiring with Gen. Tea Vinh to exploit profits [from the project], it seems like saying that Cambodia is a lawless country. It is not correct at all.

RFA: But the U.S. claims that you and General Tea Vinh inflated the construction cost of the Ream Naval Base project and you both exploited profits from it. How would you explain that?

Chau Phirun:I would like to explain that in terms of project planning, elsewhere around the globe, among project planners, no one can design an accurate plan. There have always been discrepancies, say sometimes 10 percent or 20 percent or 5 percent. It is just a plan and no one can design it accurately. And when we submit it to the [donor country], for example, the initial cost in Cambodia should be $10, but in China the cost could be up to $20; so how can you make it accurate? Also, how could I withdraw money freely from China? How could I inflate the cost? It must have gone through the auditing commission! You may ask other project planners around the globe, who can design a 100% accurate project planning? There will always be discrepancies, as I said.

RFA: For the project at Ream Naval Base, can you disclose or elaborate how much exactly China has invested in this project? And when will the entire project conclude?

Chau Phirun: There are long-term stages for the entire construction project. I myself cannot determine the amount that they will pay us because there are several stages. For example, now we start constructing the repair workshop. It could be the first stage and it could last at least two years. Likewise, the construction of a slipway for the port; it could take at least over a year. The construction of learning facility for our army, it will be done in stages…We cannot sum up the project cost yet.

RFA: Does the fact that you mentioned that you cannot disclose that, further cause confusions or imply that there are some sorts of concealment without transparency or accountability with regard to what the Cambodian government has done with China now on this Ream Naval Base project?

Chau Phirun: I do not understand that. Cambodia is a little country and so the cost of expenditure on this project will not likely be over thousands of millions of U.S, dollars. It should be at most 10-20 million U.S. dollars. And frankly that 10-20 million U.S. dollars, it cannot be used to build a base for nuclear or other weapons, based on the calculation. The U.S. considered this a threat. I could say that, in fact, it affects the political interest of the U.S as the latter is not happy to see us getting closer to another country. That should be the point! By putting sanctions on me like that, it means the U.S. uses its power to pressure a little country like Cambodia, so that we become intimidated.

RFA: But in terms of the development project at the Ream Naval Base, what has Cambodian government done in order to show to the international community, not just the U.S. but also Australia, Japan and other free world states, that it has shown its utmost transparency and honesty in this development project—without having any ill intentions, as it is alleged that Cambodia provides China exclusive rights over the use of the Ream Naval Base?

 Chau Phirun: We invited on several occasions foreign nationals who represent their respective countries that cooperate on this matter–such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Franc–so that they could come and conduct the visit at the Ream Naval Base. And they did not notice anything abnormal. But when the U.S. side conducted their visit, they just wanted to endlessly insist on inspect this place and other places. At Ream Naval Base, we have around 4 to 10 units of facilities. And when we denied their access, they accused us of concealing armed forces or other things. It really becomes complicated if they continue to use that pretext. It becomes something like a search rather than a friendly visit. 

 Translated by Samean Yun.

Chinese authorities in Tibet are giving cell phones to former Tibetan prisoners in a move aimed at monitoring their movements and conversations following their release, RFA has learned.

Launched around 2014, the policy has seen state-provided phones issued especially to former political prisoners, who are required to use them and are forbidden to possess or use cell phones of their own, Tibetan sources say.

“Cell phones issued by the government have tracking devices installed in them that note your location and who you are meeting,” said one former political prisoner in Tibet.

“The SIM card used in these phones is directly linked to a government control office, but one does not have to pay for the phone service.,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“If we keep our conversations a certain distance away from our phones, they are quite safe, though.”

Also speaking to RFA, a Tibetan living in exile said he had seen these phones in use during a visit four years ago to Tibet.

“On my trip to Tibet in 2017, I was able to meet some former political prisoners, and they were all carrying these government-issued cell phones,” he said.

“I also met a former political prisoner from Qinghai who had spent a number of years in prison, and he told me that leaving the phone in another room helped to block the tracking device.”

Tibetan political prisoners are usually required to report each week or month to police on their movements and activities for at least one to two years following their release from prison, the source added.

“To keep track of released political prisoners, the Chinese government also monitors their family and friends through their use of their own cell phones and SIM cards, with the government especially registering the SIM cards of Tibetans considered by authorities to be a threat to national security,” another source living in Tibet said.

“My own cell phone was also taken by the Chinese government for registration, and it has now become very difficult for me to receive or share any kind of information,” the source said.

Pema Gyal, a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch, told RFA that the government program of issuing cell phones to former political prisoners was launched around 2014.

“And what we have learned from many former political prisoners is that it’s the Apple iPhone Model 4 that is being used.”

“So it has become even more difficult now to share information with each other,” Gyal said.

“It is almost comical, the lengths the authorities are going to track people,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at New York-based Human Rights Watch. “It is also very chilling that people would be obliged to carry government-issued phones with them, because we all know that these are essentially tracking devices.”

“This means that you will literally have the government listening to you all the time, and that will clearly have consequences for the freedom of expression,” Richardson said.

Formerly an independent nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force over 70 years ago.

Chinese authorities exercise strict controls over phone and online communications in Tibetan areas, sources say, and news of Tibetan protests and arrests is often delayed, sometimes for years, from reaching outside contacts.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

China has vowed to sharply curb carbon emissions by 2060 but the country’s need for coal means that for the immediate future the emissions will actually rise.

China joined the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow ranking as the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter.

Based on a survey taken three years ago, China has also ranked for some time as the world’s biggest coal supplier, followed by India, the United States, Indonesia, and Australia.

But China is now promising to end the usage of fossil fuels before 2060.

Also on the positive side, the United States and China made a surprise announcement on Nov. 10, pledging to work together to slow global warming during this decade and ensure that the Glasgow talks meaningful progress.

According to a Washington Post report, the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters said they would take “enhanced climate actions” to meet the goals of a climate accord reached in Paris in 2015.

Still, as The Post notes, the declaration was “short on firm deadlines or specific commitments.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, however, “China’s climate pledges are bumping up against realities on the ground.”

In late August, China’s top climate and energy official, vice premier Han Zheng, convened an online meeting of provincial leaders, admonishing them to “resolutely curb the blind development” of high carbon emissions projects like coal plants.

But then, amid coal shortages and power outages, Han told leaders of state-owned energy companies that while these curbs were still important, their priority was to get coal-power generators cranking again, according to The Journal.

Xi stays away

In a meeting held in Rome on October 31, representatives of the world’s leading economies made only limited progress over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

This has created low expectations for any breakthrough to come on the issue during high-level United Nations climate talks being held in Glasgow this month.

China’s leader Xi Jinping was the only leader to address the opening high-level part of the conference in a written statement.

It’s not clear why Xi had chosen not to attend. But this obviated the need for him to answer any troublesome questions or engage in any give-and-take.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled plans to decarbonize his country’s economy by 2050 while at the same time insisting that Australia won’t phase out the production or use of fossil fuels.

According to a report in the Financial Times, fossil fuels accounted for more than 90 percent of Australia’s primary energy mix in 2019-2020, with renewable energy sources making up just seven percent.

Despite pressure from activists, Morrison has stuck to his refusal to update Australia’s formal 2030 emissions reduction target.

Net Zero would be achieved “the Australian way…through technology not taxes,” Morrison said on October 26.

This, he said, meant “respecting people’s choices and not enforcing mandates on what people can do and buy…(while also) keeping our industries and regions running.”

Not on track

Australia has been under international pressure to commit to serious climate change measures.

But Morrison said that Australia “won’t be lectured to by others who don’t understand Australia.”

On October 31, leaders from the G20 nations, who represent the world’s biggest coal producers and consumers, agreed to stop financing coal-burning plants overseas.

But their communique included no new commitments to curb the use of coal domestically.

The leaders also pledged “to pursue efforts” to limit the global average temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, compared with preindustrial times.

But according to reporting by The New York Times, “the world is currently not on track to achieve that goal, which scientists say is necessary to avert the worst effects of climate change.”

According to the Times, “this stark fact weighs over the Glasgow climate summit, raising fears that the summit will yield similar half-steps.”

Deciding how developed and developing nations divide the task of achieving climate targets under an accord reached in Paris in 2015 poses a major challenge.

The U.S. and Europe were seen as pushing China, India, and other developing nations to commit to earlier reductions” in coal usage and carbon emissions.

Coal is king in India

But developing nations such as India responded that wealthy nations should do more to counter climate change and are demanding a big increase in financial support from the developed world.

Meanwhile, the state-owned enterprise Coal India is among the five largest coal-mining companies in the world.

The coal sector in India is a major source of revenue for the country’s states as well as for the central government.

While renewable energy capacity has dramatically increased in India, coal still provides about 70 percent of the country’s electricity.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government sought to boost the country’s coal mining industry with a series of commercial auctions.

The Indian government has also repeatedly delayed the implementation of pollution regulations for coal plants, effectively throwing the dirtiest coal plants a lifeline.

In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country, the “green electricity plan” sounds good at first glance. But activists say that it still calls for a large portion of country’s energy to come from coal.

Meanwhile, the Rome summit’s final communique included no new commitments to phase out coal use domestically or to end fossil-fuel subsidies.

G20 leaders agreed to halt public financing of new coal-fired power plants overseas, albeit only power plants that aren’t outfitted with technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.

The G20 nations also for the first time pledged to reduce G-20 methane emissions significantly.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the conference “these commitments, as welcome as they are, are [only] drops in a rapidly warming ocean.”

 Dan Southerland is RFA’s founding Executive Editor.

The Taiwanese Navy has deployed one of its two most advanced submarines in naval drills in the Spratly Islands, a report by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said without specifying the timing.

The Republic of China National Defense Report 2021 released on Tuesday said the Hai Lung (Sea Dragon) submarine from the 256^th Fleet successfully took part in a number of missions including “the Navy and Air Force missile shooting drill, Lie Jin (Whale-hunting) drill, routine patrol and tactical combat drill in Nansha (Spratly) Islands, and combat-ready patrol and Hai Qiang anti-submarine drill.”

It didn’t mention the time and frequency but as this is the defense report for 2021, observers say the drills are likely to have been conducted within the last 12 months.

Taiwan controls two of the largest islands in the South China Sea, the Dongsha (Pratas) Island and the Taiping (Itu Aba) Island. Taiping is the largest of the naturally occurring islands among the Spratlys which Taiwan call Nansha Islands. It is also claimed by China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Governments from claimant countries have yet to respond to the news of the submarine drills but it has been widely covered by regional media.

Prior to this, Vietnam has repeatedly protested against Taiwan’s military activities at Taiping Island, which it calls Ba Binh, saying they “infringed upon Vietnam’s sovereignty and raised tensions in the South China Sea.”

“To be honest, I’m not at all surprised by this revelation,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore who studied the Taiwanese submarine program.

“It’s expected that the ROCN subs would conduct peacetime missions in the Spratlys anyway as Taiwan has sizeable possessions in the disputed area,” he said, using the initials for Taiwan’s navy.

“In times of a Taiwan Strait war, I believe Taiwanese defense planners will also want to ensure that its southern flank is properly secured,” Koh added.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, although the island is self-governing and regards itself as a sovereign state.

Indigenous submarine program

According to Koh, the subs are likely to “conduct surveillance on the Chinese military (PLA) and other Spratly claimants’ military forces, collect intelligence and even conduct training to hone combat proficiency in preparation for different conflict scenarios.”

“The Ministry of National Defense’s report merely confirms this logical undertaking,” he said.

The news comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and Taiwan. The national defense report dedicates a full 12-page chapter to outline the major military threats China poses to the island, pointing out that China has “never renounced the use of force against Taiwan.”

In order to prepare for that, the report puts great importance on strengthening Taiwan’s underwater capability including “acquiring (a) new generation of submarines and upgrading the combat systems for the existing Chien Lung-class submarines.”

Taiwan has a total of four submarines, two of them dating from World War II, making them among the oldest submarines in service in the world. They were transferred from the U.S. during the 1970s. The other two are the Chien Lung-class Hai Lung (SS-793) and Hai Hu (SS-794) submarines purchased from the Netherlands in the 1980s.

While the Hai Lung and Hai Hu “were very modern when first inducted, the growing PLA Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities mean they will become increasingly obsolete,” Koh said.

Taiwan launched the construction of its Indigenous Defensive Submarine program in November 2020 at a new submarine factory in the southern port city of Kaohsiung, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen tweeted.

Taipei aims to acquire as many as eight diesel-electric submarines at an estimated cost of $16 billion. In April, Taiwan’s defense ministry revealed that “assistance is provided by important countries in Europe and the United States” to build new submarines.

A month before, the U.S. approved the export of sensitive technology including three major types of equipment — digital sonar systems, integrated combat systems and an auxiliary equipment system (periscopes) – for the fleet.

Taipei will need to watch its steps carefully because of the risk of escalation is high in the South China Sea, warned Leyi Qi, a Taiwanese military analyst and contributor for RFA Mandarin.

“The PLA submarines are operating nearby and there are Kilo-class submarines operated by Vietnam, close to the Spratly Islands,” Qi said.

Vietnam has acquired six diesel-electric Kilo-class submarines from Russia at a cost of $3.2 billion, the last of which was delivered in 2017.

Meanwhile China is believed to have around 70 submarines, including a dozen nuclear-powered submarines. The number of Chinese nuclear submarines is likely to increase to 21 by 2030, according to the U.S.’s Office of Naval Intelligence.

A U.S. journalist now on trial in Myanmar on charges of working to oppose the Feb. 1 military coup that overthrew civilian rule in the country has been hit with additional charges that could see him spend the rest of his life in prison, his lawyer says.

Danny Fenster, editor of the online Frontier Myanmar news magazine, was arrested while trying to leave the country in May and was charged with unlawful association, violations of immigration law, and encouraging resistance to the military.

He now faces further charges of sedition and terrorism under Section 24 (a) of the Penal Code and Section 50 (a) of the Terrorism Act, Fenster’s lawyer Than Zaw Aung told RFA on Wednesday.

“I only heard about this yesterday when a police officer reported it to the Western District Judge at the Pabedan Court in Yangon,” Myanmar’s former capital, Than Zaw Aung said. “The judge has set a date for [a hearing on] the two new charges,” he added.

Fenster’s lawyer said his client had initially been charged in connection with reports filed in Myanmar Now, a news outlet for which Fenster no longer worked when the articles appeared.

“But he said he had left Myanmar Now in August 2020, and [to prove this] he submitted his tax receipts from the government,” he said.

Fenster could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted of all five counts against him, Than Zaw Aung said.

Myanmar’s ruling State Administration Council may now be using Fenster for potential leverage in its dealings with the United States, analysts told RFA.

“Danny Fenster is an American citizen, and I think he is being held hostage because they want to have a bargaining chip with the U.S. government,” said Nathan Maung, a U.S. citizen and co-founder of Yangon-based Kamayut Media who was arrested and later released by the military following the coup.

“I think it’s really political,” agreed veteran Myanmar journalist Myint Kyaw, adding, “This looks like a hostage-taking scheme related to [Myanmar’s] relationship with the United States.”

Requests for comment by the U.S. State Department on Fenster’s arrest received no response, but a State Department spokesman on Wednesday told the AFP wire service that “the profoundly unjust nature of Danny’s detention is plain for all the world to see.”

Fenster’s family lawyer told RFA by email that his family is declining for now to speak to the media regarding the new charges filed against him.

More than 30 still held

More than 30 journalists arrested in Myanmar for reporting on the Feb. 1 military coup are still being held in custody following prisoner amnesties that many had hoped would see them freed, sources in the country say.

Many of the 34 denied release have been charged with defaming Myanmar’s military under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code, while others have been charged under anti-terrorism laws over suspected ties with the opposition National Unity Government (NUG) or the local People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias set up to resist military rule, sources say.

Myanmar’s ruling State Administration Council has twice granted amnesty to detainees held for protesting the military coup, once on June 30 in a mass release that included 14 journalists and a second amnesty on Oct. 18-19 that saw 17 journalists freed.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranked Myanmar 140^th out of 180 countries in the 2021 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index and singled out junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as among the world’s 37 worst leaders in terms of media crackdowns.

The country has fallen in position every year since it was ranked 131^st in 2017.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Thursday passed a resolution on party history, the third in its century-long history, presenting “core leader” Xi Jinping as the right person to take China into a new era of international assertiveness and long-term “Marxist” rule.

While previous resolutions on CCP history have signaled major shifts in the party line, they have also served to consolidate power in the hands of a single faction within the ruling party.

The first historical resolution in 1945 affirmed the political line pursued by late supreme leader Mao Zedong, and established him at the helm of the CCP, while the second, passed in 1979, established economic reformer Deng Xiaoping’s position as supreme leader.

A communique issued by the Central Committee at the end of the sixth plenary session on Thursday describes the work of governing China during the past year as “extremely arduous and difficult,” and vows to continue to “seek progress while maintaining stability.”

It throws its weight behind “new patterns of development,” including promoting scientific and technological self-reliance, modernizing the military, and China’s “wolf-warrior” diplomatic policy of recent years, calling it “superpower diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.”

With the aim of enhancing “political awareness” along with “cultural confidence,” the communiqué vows to “resolutely support the core position of Comrade Xi Jinping at the core of the CCP Central Committee and the entire party.”

Regarding the resolution on party history, the communique said the CCP’s main task is to “strive for national independence and liberation, and create the fundamental social conditions for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Late supreme leader Mao Zedong is credited in the communique with “establishing the correct revolutionary path … of seizing power with military force,” and obliterating a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers.

The wording is in stark contrast to the CCP’s 1981 “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China,” in which the CCP under Deng penned a 13-page historical commentary that laid the responsibility for the “leftist errors” leading to the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) at Mao’s door, while also lauding his leadership at great length.

The 1981 resolution was largely addressed to the rank-and-file of the CCP and the people of China, who needed to know the likely direction in which Deng would take them following the death of Mao (1976), the power struggle that led to the fall of his designated successor Hua Guofeng, and the trial of the Gang of Four in November 1980.

But this resolution’s target audience appears to be the international community.

“The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people solemnly declare to the world … that Chinese people have now stood up, that the times when Chinese people were slaughtered and bullied is past,” it said, adding: “The Chinese people don’t just excel at destroying old worlds; they are also good at building new ones.”

Late supreme leader and economic reformer Deng Xiaoming is credited with “emancipating minds” with his shift to economic development, and as the creator of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” while former president Jiang Zemin is credited with bringing the party into the 21st century, and former leader Hu Jintao with his “scientific approach to development.”

In a nod to Xi’s likely confirmation next year for a third term in office, general secretary Xi Jinping is positioned as a deep-thinking, farsighted, big-dreaming leader to take China forward and “build a Marxist party to rule for the long term.”

Under Xi, lax governance by the CCP is a thing of the past, with the party now presiding over the “modernization of governance capabilities,” communiqué said.

Independent political scholar and veteran dissident Zha Jianguo said the communique was essentially a hodge-podge of political slogans from the past few years of CCP propaganda.

“All of it has been used many times before in party propaganda,” Zha said. “Why do they keep on repeating it?”

“Because they want to use these slogans to standardize the thinking of the entire party and the entire country, and unify the thinking of the Chinese people,” he said.

Precedent for worship

Political scholar Wei Xin said the communiqué went further than that, in that it sets a precedent for the worship of the CCP and its version of history.

“They are creating a form of worship of party history,” Wei said. “This worship of party history over the past century has turned the CCP from a revolutionary party to a highly totalitarian regime that is narcissistic and self-perpetuating in its worship of its own version of history.”

“It’s akin to the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte in the 19th century,” he said.

Artist Cian Ci posted a political cartoon to his Twitter account on Thursday satirizing the CCP resolution by depicting the three leaders whose power was consolidated by their respective historical resolutions turning towards each other in a self-referential loop, making Nazi-style salutes.

The sixth plenum communiqué claimed victory for the CCP in strengthening “national security,” especially in taking tighter control of Hong Kong, and “firmly implementing the principle that patriots should run Hong Kong.”

The party also “resolutely opposed acts of Taiwan separatism and interference by external forces,” it said.

“The CCP and the people of China solemnly declare to the world that [they] have made a great leap, have stood up, and are getting richer and stronger,” it said.

‘A continual tightening up’

Hong Kong political commentator Johnny Lau said the CCP under Xi has moved to assert Beijing’s direct control over Hong Kong since the fourth plenum.

“There has been a continual tightening up of what they mean by ‘one country, two systems,’ which meant something different back in the day, before the 1997 handover,” Lau told RFA.

“There’s already a huge difference, and people are saying that Xi Jinping has basically overturned the more lenient definition made under Deng Xiaoping,” he said.

Benson Wong, former assistant politics professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the references to Taiwan are largely formulaic, and give little away about what Beijing is planning next.

“Actually, the lack of comment on Taiwan could be said to reflect a failure [of CCP policy],” Wong said. “If you compare the comments on Hong Kong and Macau with those on Taiwan, you can spot the differences in how successfully those issues have been handled [from Beijing’s point of view].”

The communiqué was published a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington and its allies would take unspecified “action” if China were to use force to annex Taiwan.

“There are many countries, both in the region and beyond, that would see any unilateral action to use force to disrupt the status quo as a significant threat to peace and security, and they too would take action in the event that that happens,” Blinken said, but declined to specify what kind of action he meant.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.