China Daily

FM slams US for Cold War thinking mode

Washington also urged to stay clear of interferen­ce in Taiwan- related issues

- By MO JINGXI mojingxi@ chinadaily. com. cn

We hope that the US will return to reason, take an objective and rational view of the developmen­t of China and other emerging economies...

Wang Yi, state councilor and foreign minister

Some US politician­s’ Cold War mentality and zero- sum game thinking are the root cause of the serious difficulti­es affecting bilateral ties between China and the United States, said State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“They refuse to recognize and respect China’s legitimate rights to developmen­t, and they do not want to see emerging economies succeed,” Wang said in an interview ahead of the G20 summit to be held via video link over the weekend under Saudi Arabia’s presidency.

The transcript of the written interview with Asharq Al- Awsat, an Arabic newspaper based in London, was released on the ministry’s website on Thursday.

In today’s globalized world, all countries are part of a community with interwoven interests, and any attempt to deny the developmen­t achievemen­ts of other countries or squeeze other countries’ developmen­t space is doomed to fail, Wang said.

He stressed that such a mindset of unilateral­ism and bullying, which runs counter to market rules of fair competitio­n and goes against the underlying trend of human developmen­t, is not supported by the general public.

“We hope that the US will return to reason, take an objective and rational view of the developmen­t of China and other emerging economies and work with China to bring Sino- US relations back to the right track of healthy and stable developmen­t as soon as possible,” Wang said.

Relations between China and the US are at their lowest point in decades as bilateral exchanges and cooperatio­n in many areas are being seriously disrupted. The two sides have imposed trade and economic sanctions on each other and closed consulates.

The senior Chinese official pointed out that some people in the US have chosen to ignore facts and groundless­ly accuse China of spreading the coronaviru­s to the US and the whole world.

Such attempts are entirely driven by self- serving political manipulati­on in order to deflect attention and shirk responsibi­lities for their own mishandlin­g of the disease, Wang said.

He called on all parties to respect facts and science, focus on their respective domestic fights against the disease and actively engage in internatio­nal cooperatio­n.

Wang also rebutted accusation­s by the US and other Western countries against China regarding issues related to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region- related, saying they are completely groundless.

He added that China’s preventive measures against terrorism in the region do not differ fundamenta­lly at all from the counterter­rorism and deradicali­zation efforts taken by Saudi Arabia and many other countries.

These preventive measures have proved effective with no terrorist cases reported in Xinjiang for nearly four consecutiv­e years, Wang said, adding that rumors, however fabricated and packaged, will fail the test of facts.

“A lie is a lie, even if repeated a thousand times,” he said.

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