China says US comments on Taiwan and AUKUS are dangerous

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday called remarks made by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell dangerous, after he suggested the AUKUS submarine project between Australia, Britain and the U.S. could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan.

"His remarks are very dangerous," said spokesperson Zhu Fenglian when responding to a query at a weekly press conference.

"The establishment of the so-called trilateral security partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia is essentially to provoke military confrontation in the region through military cooperation in small circles."

Campbell, who made a rare linkage between Taiwan and AUKUS, told Washington's Center for a New American Security think tank that new submarine capabilities would enhance peace and stability, including in the strait that separates China and Taiwan.

"Any attempt to use relevant military cooperation to intervene in the Taiwan issue is to interfere in China's internal affairs, violate the one-China principle, and endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. We firmly oppose," Zhu said.

The United States, Britain and Australia formed AUKUS in 2021, part of their efforts to push back against China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.

Both Taiwan and China claim most of the South China Sea as their own territory.

China has massively expanded its arsenal of warships and missiles in recent years, and carried out extensive land reclamation on its South China Sea islands, building major air force and other military facilities, causing major concern in Washington and around the region.

(Reporting by Beijing and Taipei newsrooms; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Stephen Coates)