US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Saturday called China's military activity near Taiwan
"provocative and destabilizing"
, a day after his Chinese counterpart warned him that Beijing "would not hesitate not to start a war" if the island declared its independence.
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“We are seeing growing coercion from Beijing. We have seen a continued increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan
,” Austin said at the Shangri-la Dialogue security forum in Singapore.
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