Relations between the two superpowers have been strained over the years.
Beijing:
China’s foreign minister defended his stance on the war in Ukraine and closer ties with Russia on Tuesday, saying the United States must change its “perverted” attitude toward China or adhere to “struggle and confrontation”.
Foreign Minister Qin Gang told a news conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing that the US has been engaging in suppression and control of China rather than engaging in fair, rules-based competition.
“The United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted,” said Qin, a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping and until recently China’s ambassador to Washington.
“It treats China as its primary rival and most consequential geopolitical challenger. It’s like getting the first button on the shirt wrong.”
Relations between the two superpowers have been strained for years over a range of issues including Taiwan, trade and more recently the war in Ukraine, but they worsened after the United States shot down a balloon off the US East Coast last month. Chinese spy craft.
The US says it is setting guardrails for ties and not seeking conflict, but Qin said in practice it meant China should not respond with words or actions when slandered or attacked. Was.
“It is absolutely impossible,” Qin said at his first press conference after becoming foreign minister in late December.
Qin’s comments struck a chord with his predecessor Wang Yi, now China’s most senior diplomat, who was made director of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office at the end of the year.
“If the United States doesn’t hit the brakes, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can stop the derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation, and who will suffer the disastrous consequences?”
In Washington, White House national security spokesman John Kirby dismissed the criticism and said the United States does not seek confrontation with Beijing.
Kirby told reporters, “We want a strategic competition with China. We don’t want a conflict.” “Our goal is to compete and our goal is to win that competition with China but we want to keep it at that level.”
US officials often talk about installing guardrails in bilateral ties to prevent tensions from turning into crisis.
Qin compared the Sino-US competition to a race between two Olympic athletes.
“If one side, instead of focusing on giving its best, always tries to bring down the other, even to the extent that they should enter the Paralympics, then it is not fair competition,” They said.
‘Jackals and Wolves’
During a nearly two-hour news conference in which he answered questions that had been presented earlier, Qin made a strong defense of “wolf warrior diplomacy”, a vocal and often intransigent stance adopted by China’s diplomats since 2020 Is.
“When jackals and wolves are blocking the way, and hungry wolves are attacking us, Chinese diplomats should dance with wolves and protect and defend our home and country,” he said.
Qin also said that an “invisible hand” was pushing to escalate the war in Ukraine “to serve some geopolitical agenda”, without specifying who he was referring to.
He reiterated China’s call for talks to end the war.
China struck a “no borders” partnership with Russia last year, weeks before its invasion of Ukraine, and blamed NATO expansion for triggering the war, echoing Russia’s complaint.
China has refused to condemn the invasion and has fiercely defended its stance on Ukraine, despite Western criticism failing to single out Russia as the aggressor.
China has also strongly denied US allegations that it is considering supplying arms to Russia.
Advancing Relations With Moscow
Qin said China will have to step up its ties with Russia as the world becomes more turbulent and that close talks between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have strengthened the neighbors’ ties.
Asked whether Xi would visit Russia after China’s parliament session, which will run for another week, he did not give a definite answer.
Since Russia invaded its southwestern neighbor a year ago, Xi has held talks with Putin several times, but not with his Ukrainian counterpart. It undermines China’s claim of neutrality in the conflict, Kiev’s top diplomat in Beijing said last month.
Asked whether it was possible that China and Russia would abandon the US dollar and euro for bilateral trade, Qin said the countries should use an efficient, safe and reliable currency.
China is looking to internationalize its currency, the yuan, which gained popularity in Russia last year after Western sanctions forced Russia’s banks and many of its companies out of the dollar and euro payment systems.
Qin said, “Currencies should not be a trump card for unilateral sanctions, much less an excuse for intimidation or coercion.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
featured video of the day
Thousands of people reached the Salangpur Hanuman temple in Gujarat to celebrate Holi.