CNN
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China’s new International Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that “battle and confrontation” with america is inevitable if Washington doesn’t change course, delivering a stern and wide-ranging rebuke of US insurance policies for his first press convention within the new function.
Qin, who was till just lately China’s ambassador to the US, constructed up a status for being cautious and completed diplomat whereas abroad.
However he struck a much more combative tone in his first look as international minister at China’s annual parliamentary assembly, warning of the “catastrophic penalties” of what he described as a “reckless gamble” by Washington in the way it treats its fellow superpower.
“If america doesn’t hit the brakes, however continues to hurry down the unsuitable path, no quantity of guardrails can forestall derailing, and there’ll certainly be battle and confrontation,” Qin mentioned on the sidelines of the Nationwide Individuals’s Congress in Beijing.
On the extremely scripted occasion, Qin set the tone for China’s international coverage within the coming yr and past, berating the US for rising bilateral tensions whereas defending Beijing’s shut partnership with Moscow.
Ties between the world’s two largest economies are at their worst in many years, and tensions soared additional final month after a suspected Chinese language spy balloon floated over North America and was then shot down by US fighter jets.
On Tuesday, Qin accused the US of overreacting in its response, which he mentioned created “a diplomatic disaster that might have been prevented.”
The incident, Qin mentioned, exhibits “the US notion and views of China are severely distorted. It regards China as its main rival and the largest geopolitical problem.”
“The US claims it seeks to compete with China however doesn’t search battle. However in actuality, the so-called ‘competitors’ by the US is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum sport of life and dying,” he mentioned.
“Containment and suppression won’t make America nice, and the US won’t cease the rejuvenation of China,” Qin mentioned.
Qin highlighted the problem of Taiwan because the “basis of the political basis of Sino-US relations and the primary pink line that should not be crossed.”
The Chinese language Communist Social gathering claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as a part of its territory, regardless of having by no means managed it, and refuses to rule out the usage of drive to “reunify” it with mainland China.
On Tuesday, Qin urged the US to not “intervene in China’s inner affairs” and questioned Washington’s totally different responses to the problems of Ukraine and Taiwan.
“Why does the US speak up respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Ukraine subject, however doesn’t respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on the problem of Taiwan? Why does the US ask China to not present weapons to Russia whereas retains promoting arms to Taiwan?” Qin mentioned.