Chinese foreign minister reiterated Beijing\u2019s call for dialogue to end the conflict in Ukraine
\n BEIJING
\nThe United States should change its \u201cdistorted\u201d attitude towards China or \u201cconflict and confrontation\u201d will follow, China\u2019s foreign minister said on Tuesday, while defending its stance on the war in Ukraine and defending its close ties with Russia.
\nThe US had been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than engaging in fair, rule-based competition, Foreign Minister Qin Gang told a news conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing.
\n\u201cThe United States\u2019 perception and views of China are seriously distorted,\u201d Qin said. \u201cIt regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong.\u201d
\nRelations between the two superpowers have been tense for years over a number of issues including Taiwan, trade, and more recently the war in Ukraine but they worsened last month after the United States shot down a balloon off the US east coast that it says was a Chinese spying craft.
\nThe US says it is establishing guardrails for relations and is not seeking conflict but Qin said what that meant in practice was that China was not supposed to respond with words or action when slandered or attacked.
\n\u201cThat is just impossible,\u201d Qin told his first news conference since becoming foreign minister in December.
\n\u201cIf the United States does not hit the brakes, 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?\u201d Qin likened the Sino-US competition to a race between two Olympic athletes.
\n\u201cIf one side, instead of focusing on giving one\u2019s best, always tries to trip the other up, even to the extent that they must enter the Paralympics, then this is not fair competition,\u201d he said.
\nDuring a nearly two-hour news conference in which he answered questions submitted in advance, Qin made a robust defence of \u201cwolf warrior diplomacy\u201d, an assertive and often abrasive stance adopted by China\u2019s diplomats since 2020.
\n\u201cWhen jackals and wolves are blocking the way, and hungry wolves are attacking us, Chinese diplomats must then dance with the wolves and protect and defend our home and country,\u201d he said.
\nQin also said that an \u201cinvisible hand\u201d was pushing for the escalation of the war in Ukraine \u201cto serve certain geopolitical agendas\u201d, without specifying who he was referring to.
\nHe reiterated China\u2019s call for dialogue to end the war.
\nChina struck a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership with Russia last year, weeks before its invasion of Ukraine, and China has blamed NATO expansion for triggering the war, echoing Russia\u2019s complaint.
\nChina has declined to condemn the invasion and has fiercely defended its stance on Ukraine, despite Western criticism of its failure to single Russia out as the aggressor.
\nChina has also vehemently denied US accusations that it has been considering supplying Russia with weapons.
\nQin said China had to advance its relations with Russia as the world becomes more turbulent and close interactions between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, anchored the neighbours\u2019 relations.
\nHe did not give a definite answer when asked if Xi would visit Russia after China\u2019s parliament session, which goes on for one more week.
\nSince Russia invaded its southwestern neighbour a year ago Xi has held talks several times with Putin, but not with his Ukrainian counterpart. This undermines China\u2019s claim of neutrality in the conflict, Kyiv\u2019s top diplomat in Beijing said last month.
\nAsked whether it was possible that China and Russia would abandon the US dollar and euro for bilateral trade, Qin said countries should use whatever currency was efficient, safe, and credible.
\nChina has been looking to internationalise its renminbi, or the yuan, which gained popularity in Russia last year after Western sanctions shut Russia\u2019s banks and many of its companies out of the dollar and euro payment systems. \u201cCurrencies should not be the trump card for unilateral sanctions, still less a disguise for bullying or coercion,\u201d Qin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese foreign minister reiterated Beijing\u2019s call for dialogue to end the conflict in Ukraine BEIJING The United States should change its \u201cdistorted\u201d attitude towards China or \u201cconflict and confrontation\u201d will follow, China\u2019s foreign minister said on Tuesday, while defending its stance on the war in Ukraine and defending its close ties with Russia. The US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-318147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n