BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that Beijing and Washington are headed for “conflict and confrontation” if the U.S. doesn’t change course, putting a combative tone at a second when relations between the rivals are at a historic low.
In his first information convention since taking workplace late final yr, Qin’s harsh language appeared to defy predictions that China may abandon its aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy in favor of extra average rhetoric as the 2 nations face off over commerce and know-how, Taiwan, human rights and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington’s China coverage has “entirely deviated from the rational and sound track,” Qin informed journalists on the sidelines of the annual assembly of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, when leaders lay out their financial and political priorities for the approaching yr.
“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” mentioned Qin, whose new place is junior to the Communist Party’s senior overseas coverage official, Wang Yi. “Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”
Qin’s feedback echoed remarks made by chief Xi Jinping in a speech Monday to legislators.
“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-round containment, blockade and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented grave challenges to our nation’s development,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
In the face of that, China should “remain calm, maintain concentration, strive for progress while maintaining stability, take active actions, unite as one, and dare to fight,” he mentioned.
U.S. officers have grown more and more fearful about China’s expansive political and financial targets and the opportunity of struggle over Taiwan — and plenty of officers in Washington have known as for the U.S. to make an even bigger effort to counter Chinese affect overseas.
In current weeks, issues about Chinese spying on the U.S. and Beijing’s affect campaigns there have drawn explicit concern, and officers from the 2 nations have ceaselessly traded accusations.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a deliberate go to to Beijing after Washington shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over American territory. The huge balloon and its payload, together with electronics and optics, have been recovered from the ocean flooring and are being analyzed by the FBI.
Then final week, China responded with indignation when U.S. officers raised the difficulty once more of whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic started with a lab leak. The Foreign Ministry accused the U.S. of “politicizing the issue” in an try and discredit China.
And the 2 nations have traded indignant phrases over Taiwan as China has stepped up its diplomatic isolation and army harassment of the self-governing island democracy that it claims as its personal territory.
Qin — who briefly served as ambassador to Washington and gained a status for his chopping condemnations of China’s critics when he was Foreign Ministry spokesman — touched on all these subjects on Tuesday.
He criticized Washington for taking pictures down the balloon, repeating claims that its look in U.S. skies was an accident.
“In this case the United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted. It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge,” Qin mentioned. “This is like the first button in a shirt being put wrong and the result is that the U.S.-China policy has entirely deviated from the rational and sound track.”
On Taiwan, Qin known as the difficulty the primary pink line that should not be crossed. China and Taiwan break up amid civil struggle in 1949. While the U.S. doesn’t advocate for both unification or Taiwan’s formal independence, Washington is obligated by federal legislation to see that the island has the means to defend itself if attacked.
“The U.S. has unshakable responsibility for causing the Taiwan question,” he mentioned, accusing the U.S. of “disrespecting China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” by providing the island political backing and furnishing it with defensive weapons in response to Beijing’s risk to make use of power to carry it underneath Chinese management.
“Why does the U.S. ask China not to provide weapons to Russia, while it keeps selling arms to Taiwan?” Qin requested.
In Taipei, Taiwan’s Defense Minister mentioned the armed forces weren’t searching for outright battle with China’s army, however nor would they again away within the occasion of Chinese plane or ships getting into Taiwanese coastal seas or airspace.
“It is the nation’s armed forces’ duty to mount an appropriate response,” Chiu Kuo-cheng informed legislators.
Beijing has additionally accused the West of “fanning the flames” by offering Ukraine with weaponry to fend off the Russian invasion. China says it has a impartial stance within the struggle, however has additionally mentioned it has a “no-limits friendship” with Russia and has refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion — and even consult with it as an invasion.
A Chinese name for a cease-fire in Ukraine that has drawn reward from Russia however dismissals from the West has accomplished nothing to reduce tensions as U.S. officers have repeatedly accused China of contemplating offering weapons to Moscow to be used within the struggle.
“Efforts for peace talks have been repeatedly undermined. There seems to be an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict and using the Ukraine crisis to serve a certain geopolitical agenda,” Qin mentioned.
Qin’s information convention got here two days after the opening of the yearly assembly of the National People’s Congress, a principally ceremonial physique assembled to approve authorities stories and, this yr, a brand new slate of top-level appointments. That is anticipated to incorporate a norm-breaking third five-year time period as president for Xi, who has eradicated all time period limits to permit him to rule indefinitely.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”