Qin Gang, who is currently China’s foreign minister, is pictured here speaking in Washington, DC, in December 2022 when he was China’s ambassador to the United States.
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BEIJING – China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang says relations with the US have left a rational path and warned of conflict if the US does not “put the brakes on”.
Qin, who until recently served as China’s ambassador to the US, said China would “seek good and stable relations with the US”
However, he said that the Biden administration to “put up the fence and not seek conflict only means that China does not have to respond with words or actions when attacked.”
“That’s impossible,” Qin said.
“If the US does not hit the brakes but continues to speed down the wrong path, there will be no fence to prevent it from derailing and there will always be conflict and confrontation,” he said.
Qin spoke at his first press conference since becoming foreign minister. In Taiwan, he reiterated that the issue was China’s internal affairs. Beijing considers the democratically controlled islands part of its territory.
Qin said the question of Taiwan was the first red line of US-China relations that should not be crossed.
“The U.S. is acting on a presumption of guilt,” he said, referring to last month’s balloon incident. Qin reiterated China’s position that the vehicle was unmanned and affected by forces beyond Beijing’s control.
“The result is that US and Chinese policies have deviated from the rational and sound track,” Qin said.
Qin on Tuesday also presented Beijing’s relations with Moscow as an example of relations with other countries.
He said that “major countries” should consider whether they seek an “exclusive political bloc” or “encourage friendship.”
Qin said China-Russia relations are not a threat to any country, nor is there interference from third countries.
“The more unstable the world becomes, the more important it is for China and Russia to continuously develop relations,” Qin said through an official English translation.
During the reshuffle of the ruling Communist Party of China in October, Qin was also named to the party’s central committee.