China hit the United States on Tuesday when the foreign secretary accused Washington of fueling tensions between the two powers and warned of “conflict and confrontation.”
In recent years, conflicts have erupted between the world’s largest economies over trade, human rights and other issues, but relations soured further last month when the United States shot down a Chinese balloon it said was being used for surveillance. Beijing strongly denies this claim.
Beijing’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing National People’s Congress (NPC) that there would be “catastrophic consequences” if the United States continued to move in its current direction.
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“If the United States does not put on the brakes but continues on the wrong track, no barriers will be able to prevent the derailment, and conflict and confrontation are sure to ensue,” Qin told reporters.
“Who will bear the catastrophic consequences?”
The Foreign Secretary called the American rivalry with China “a reckless gamble in which the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of mankind are at stake.”
He added that it was “a zero-sum game of life and death.”
– Encirclement and Suppression –
Qin’s comments came after President Xi Jinping accused the United States of conducting “containment, encirclement and suppression of China” while urging his country’s private sector to stimulate innovation and become more self-reliant.
China’s tech ambitions have faced a range of restrictions from the United States and its Western allies, and Beijing has redoubled its need to cut imports in sectors deemed vital to national security, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
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In recent months, Washington has tightened sanctions on Chinese chip makers, citing national security concerns and the risk of the technology being used by China’s military.
In a rare direct criticism of the United States, Xi told industry leaders on Monday that “Western countries, led by the United States, have carried out comprehensive containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has created unprecedented serious problems for the development of our country.”
Xi, who will be granted a third consecutive term in the coming days in a well-managed NPC, said the past five years have been riddled with a new set of obstacles that have threatened to slow China’s economic recovery.
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Xi said China must “gather the courage to fight as the country faces profound and complex changes in both the domestic and international landscape,” Xi said in an address to delegates at the China People’s Political Consultative Conference, according to the state-run Xinhua news. agency. CPPCC) that works alongside NPCs.
The 69-year-old businessman said private firms “should take the lead in bringing about high-quality development,” the Xinhua news agency reported late Monday.
Xi also promised to strengthen China’s manufacturing capacity and said the country should be able to fend for itself.
“I have always said that there are two critical areas for China, one is to protect our rice bowl and the other is to build a strong manufacturing sector,” he said.
“As a great nation of 1.4 billion people, we must rely on ourselves… We cannot rely on international markets to save us.”
– China and Russia “pose no threat” –
At a wide-ranging press conference, former US Ambassador Qin also dismissed Western warnings that China could be supplying weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine, saying he would not accept “blame-shifting, sanctions, repression and threats” against Beijing.
Last month, China released a position paper outlining its position on the Ukraine conflict, presenting itself as a neutral party and urging both sides to enter into peace talks.
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Beijing’s claim of neutrality was questioned by the United States and Ukraine’s other allies, with Russia and China describing their bilateral relationship as “borderless” just weeks before the invasion.
Qin said China was “neither the creator of the crisis nor a party to it, and it has not provided arms to either side”, adding that peace talks should start “as soon as possible”.
According to him, Beijing’s relations with Moscow “do not pose a threat to any country in the world.”
Qin also reiterated the official line that China “will retain the ability to take all necessary action” to take over Taiwan.
He warned against “underestimating the strong determination, strong will and powerful ability of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”