Beijing ramps up the threats
Minister warns US of war
BEIJING: China has warned the US of “catastrophic consequences” if it stokes tensions between the two powers.
Beijing’s new Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, told a press conference on the sidelines of the week-long National People’s Congress there would be “confrontation” if the US carried on in its current direction.
“If the United States does not hit the brakes but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” Mr Qin said.
The Foreign Minister called US competition with China “a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of two peoples and even the future of humanity”.
It was “a zero-sum game of life and death”, he added.
In response, Washington denied it was seeking conflict with Beijing and stressed the relationship was one of “strategic competition”.
“With all due respect to the Chinese Foreign Minister, there is no change to the United States posture when it comes to this bilateral relationship,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
“There is nothing about our approach to this most consequential bilateral relationship that should lead anybody to think we want conflict.
“We aim to compete, and we aim to win that competition with China, but we absolutely want to keep it at that level.”
The world’s biggest economies have clashed in recent years over trade, human rights and other issues, but relations soured even further last month when the US shot down a Chinese balloon it said was being used for surveillance – a claim strenuously denied by Beijing.
Mr Qin’s comments came after Chinese President Xi Jinping slammed the US for leading an effort of “containment, encirclement and suppression of China”, while urging his country’s private sector to boost innovation and become more self-reliant.
The tension hit another level on Tuesday when the White House welcomed a bill that would allow the US to ban Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok. The bill was backed by Democrat senator Mark Warner and Republican John Thune in a rare act of bipartisanship in congress.
The bipartisan bill “would empower the United States government to prevent certain foreign governments from exploiting technology services … in a way that poses risks to Americans’ sensitive data and our national security,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
It comes as Germany is preparing to ban Chinese-made Huawei technology from large parts of its 5G networks.
Germany would be the latest Western country to restrict the use of 5G devices made by Huawei, the Chinese market leader, following bans by the US, Australia, Britain and others. Huawei could be compelled by Beijing to siphon off data or shut down systems in the event of a conflict.