China blasts Singapore's military cooperation with Taiwan
Beijing: A Chinese state newspaper is strongly criticising Singapore over the Southeast Asian city state's military training agreement with self-governing Taiwan, following the impounding of nine Singaporean infantry fighting vehicles transiting through Hong Kong.
The Communist Party-run Global Times said in an editorial Tuesday that Singapore was responsible for the incident, but gave no details about what laws or regulations have been broken by the shipping of the armoured vehicles from Taiwan.
The editorial said China has long opposed all forms of military cooperation between other countries and Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a breakaway province to be reunited with by force if necessary.
Singapore's defence ministry said it sent a team to Hong Kong over the weekend to ensure the security of the vehicles and "assess the situation."