Roving Periscope: Chinese FM Qin Gang warns the US of “conflict and confrontation”
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After several American leaders, including US President Joe Biden, warned China recently on a range of issues—Taiwan, the support to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the debt-trapping of poor countries, and the hegemonic designs in the South China Sea–the new Chinese Foreign Minister has warned Washington to change its path or face “conflict and confrontation.”
Blaming the US for rising tension between Washington and Beijing, Qin Gang told reporters in the Chinese capital that Washington has been engaging in “suppression and containment” of China rather than fair or rule-based competition, according to the media reports on Tuesday.
“The United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted,” Qin, who was the Chinese Ambassador to the US until January, said.
“The US regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenger. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong.
The US should play by the rules it talks about,” he said.
“The US talks a lot about following rules, but imagine two athletes competing in the Olympic race. If one side, instead of focusing on giving one’s best, always tries to trip or even into the other. That is not fair competition, but malicious confrontation and a foul.”
The US says it is establishing guardrails for relations with China and is not seeking conflict, but what this means in practice is that China is not supposed to respond with words or actions when slandered or attacked, he said.
“That is just impossible,” Qin said.
“If the US does not hit the brake, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation, and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?”
Relations between the two superpowers have been sliding downhill for years over a number of issues including Taiwan, trade, and Ukraine but they worsened after a controversy involving a balloon that the U.S. said was a Chinese spying device and shot down in February.
“If the US has the ambition to make itself great again, it should also have a broad mind for the development of other countries,” Qin said.
“Containment and suppression will not make America great. It will not stop the rejuvenation of China.”
