Mr Dutton spoke out as he explained why France was not immediately informed about the $90billion submarine deal that was cancelled. He went on to explain how it “would be inconceivable” for Australia to not support the US in defending Taiwan against China. The Australian defence minister added that defending Taiwan was vital to leave Australia in a global position of strength.
Speaking to The Australian news outlet he said: “China’s been very clear about their intent to go into Taiwan.
“We need to make sure that there is a high level of preparedness.
“We need to make sure there is a greater sense of deterrence by our capability, and that is how I think we put our country in a position of strength.
“It would be inconceivable that we wouldn’t support the US in an action if the US chose to take that action.”
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“He’s become more authoritarian.”
Mr Dean then addd that the present ‘grey-zone warfare’ between China and Taiwan was a signal that Beijing was a risk to world security.
He said: “What the Chinese are really risking here is an incident that comes about by accident or someone gets trigger-happy.
“The real risk in the region is we don’t have any proper, formal mechanisms for de-escalating these things.
“The Chinese are being very adventurous, very coercive.
“They are really raising the levels of risk to levels they really shouldn’t be doing.”
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that they must take back under its control.
However, Taipei is an independent democracy that has had the backing of the US since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
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