After Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe delivered a speech themed “China’s Vision for Regional Order” at the 19th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 12, Senior Colonel Zhou Bo (ret.), a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy and a China Forum expert, gave an interview to CNBC’s Street Signs Asia the next day on General Wei’s speech and his talks with the US defense secretary, which was published on CNBC.com. From 2013 to 2019, Zhou has been invited to speak at the Shangri-La Dialogue as a member and expert of the Chinese military delegation.

According to Zhou, General Wei’s remarks on Taiwan were a response to President Biden’s previous comments in Tokyo that the US would defend Taiwan militarily. China’s defense budget, which speaks the best about a country’s geostrategic intentions, has been less than 2% of its GDP in decades, showing China’s patience with peaceful reunification. China still expects, with the utmost sincerity, to resolve sovereignty and territorial disputes through peaceful means, Zhou added.

Regarding the back-and-forth over Biden’s comments on Taiwan, Zhou told CNBC that there is an increasing wariness of US stance as Biden is only paying lip service to the “one China policy.” Given recent media reports about US assistance to Taiwan, Zhou said, “How could we have trust in the one China policy?”

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Hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in partnership with the Asia Security Summit Office at Singapore’s Ministry of Defense, the Shangri-La Dialogue is a premier, “Track 1.5” defense and security conference in the Asia-Pacific region.

Watch the interview here: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/ex-pla-official-on-taiwan-policy-us-paying-lip-service-to-one-china-policy.html