Chinese Foreign Minister (FM) Qin Gang urged the US to change its “distorted” attitude towards China, warning that failing to do so will result in “conflict and confrontation.”
Chinese Perception
On the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing, the FM told a news conference that the US has been trying to suppress and contain China rather than engage in fair, rules-based competition.
Qin said that the US’ “perception and views” of the Asian superpower are “seriously distorted,” as it “regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge.” “This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong,” Qin added.
In his first press conference as China's top diplomat, Foreign MinisterQin Gang said US policies risk "conflict and confrontation" with Beijing.
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Moreover, the diplomat compared China’s competition with the US to a race between two Olympic athletes.
“If one side, instead of focusing on giving one’s best, always tries to trip the other up, even to the extent that they must enter the Paralympics, then this is not fair competition,” he asserted.
US Response
Meanwhile, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, brushed off Qin’s criticism and said that Washington was not seeking confrontation with Beijing.
"If US doesn't put on brakes and changes recent mistaken policies toward China, conflict and confrontation will follow. China resist any form of hegemony, Cold War mentality and bloc thinking, Beijing doesn't supply weapons to any party in Ukraine conflict" - Chinese FM Qin Gang.… https://t.co/HqTdDEMHoI pic.twitter.com/qZxBIPfsmw
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“We seek a strategic competition with China. We do not seek conflict,” Kirby stressed during a press briefing. “We aim to compete and we aim to win that competition with China but we absolutely want to keep it at that level.”
Expert Analyses
Dr Chen Gang, assistant director of policy research and senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, said on Tuesday he believes that the two countries “are already in a kind of early stage of a new version of the Cold War.”
To this end, Dr Victor Gao, chair professor at Soochow University and vice president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, noted that it is “absolutely necessary” for both superpowers to do their best to “maintain healthy, steady and constructive” relations.