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The United States must change its “distorted” stance toward China or risk “conflict and confrontation,” the country’s foreign minister said, defending China’s stance on the war in Ukraine and its close ties with Russia on Tuesday.
The US has engaged in repression and contained China instead of fair rules-based competition, Foreign Minister Qin Gang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary meeting in Beijing.
Qin warned that Beijing and Washington would face “conflict and confrontation” if the US did not change course, striking an aggressive tone at a time when relations between the rivals are at a historic low.
In his first press conference since taking office late last year, Qin warned that China’s policy in Washington had “deviated from rationality and sound.” He spoke to reporters at the annual meeting of China’s legislature, where leaders set priorities for the coming year.
Relations between the two superpowers have been strained for years over a number of issues, including Taiwan, trade and the recent war in Ukraine. But they got worse last month after the United States shot down a balloon off the US east coast that it said was a Chinese spy ship.
A ‘distorted’ view of China
“The United States’ perception and view of China has been severely damaged,” said Qin, a trusted aide to President Xi Jinping and until recently China’s ambassador to Washington.
“It treats China as the main rival and the most important geopolitical challenge. It’s like the first button on the wrong shirt.”
The US says it builds a fence for relations and does not seek conflict, but Qin said that in practice China should not respond with words or actions when it is slandered or attacked.
“This is impossible,” Qin said at his first press conference since becoming foreign minister in late December.
Qin’s comments struck a chord with his predecessor, Wang Yi, who is now China’s most senior diplomat after becoming director of the Foreign Affairs Commission Office at the turn of the year.
China warns: hit the brakes or crash
“If the United States does not put on the brakes, and continues to speed down the wrong path, there will be no fence to prevent derailment, which will lead to conflict and confrontation, and who will bear the consequences of the disaster?”
US officials often talk about building a fence in bilateral relations to prevent tensions from escalating into a crisis.
WATCH | US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned China not to supply arms to Russia:
The US has warned China against sending arms to Russia to escalate its war in Ukraine amid fears US-China tensions could lead to another Cold War.
Qin compared the Sino-US competition to a race between two Olympic athletes.
“If one side, instead of focusing on giving the best, always tries to elevate the other side, even if it means going to the Paralympics, then it’s not a fair competition,” Qin said.
“Competition is reckless gambling, with betting being the basic interest of both people and even the future of humanity.”
During a nearly two-hour news conference in which he answered questions sent earlier, Qin made a strong defense of “wolf warrior diplomacy”, the firm and often abrasive stance adopted by Chinese diplomats since 2020.
“When wolves and wolves block the road, and hungry wolves attack us, Chinese diplomats must dance with wolves and protect and defend our home and country,” he said.
The ‘Invisible Hand’ is escalating the war in Ukraine
Qin also said that an “invisible hand” was pushing the escalation of the war in Ukraine “to serve a certain geopolitical agenda,” without specifying who it was targeting. He reiterated China’s call for dialogue to end the war.
In response, Russia said on Tuesday that the United States was driving the war in Ukraine, saying that China’s foreign minister was joking when he said an “invisible hand” was to blame.
In an effusive comment on China’s stature in world affairs, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Qin’s comments that the Ukraine crisis was apparently driven by an invisible hand, pushing to extend and escalate the conflict and using it “to serve a certain geopolitical agenda.”
“This is always a joke. You know what a joke is: this is not an invisible hand, this is the hand of the United States, this is the hand of Washington,” Peskov told reporters.
China attacked its “borderless” partnership with Russia last year, weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, and China has blamed NATO’s expansion for triggering the war, echoing Russian complaints.
China has refused to condemn the invasion and has fiercely defended its stance on Ukraine, despite Western criticism of the failure to single out Russia as an aggressor.
Close ties with Russia
China has also strongly denied US allegations that it has considered supplying Russia with weapons.
Qin said China needs to work on its ties with Russia as the world becomes more turbulent and the close interaction between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is bolstering ties with the neighbor.
He did not give a definitive answer when asked if Xi would visit Russia after the session of China’s parliament, which continues for another week.
Since Russia invaded its southwestern neighbor a year ago, Xi has held several talks with Putin, but not with his Ukrainian counterpart.
This undermines China’s claim of neutrality in the conflict, a top diplomat in Beijing said last month.
Asked whether China and Russia would abandon the US dollar and euro for bilateral trade, Qin said countries should use whatever currency is efficient, safe and reliable.
China has been looking to internationalize its currency, the yuan, which gained popularity in Russia last year after Western sanctions shut Russian banks and many companies out of the dollar and euro payment system.
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