US sees Beijing as an imaginary enemy, says Chinese diplomat
A top Chinese diplomat on Monday took a combative tone during rare talks with a US counterpart, saying Washington’s strategy of confrontation and cooperation with Beijing was a thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China.
The China-us ties are in a stalemate, fundamentally because some Americans portray China as an “imaginary enemy”, Chinese vice foreign minister, Xie Feng, told deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, the second-ranked US diplomat,
BEIJING:
during their meeting in Tianjin, a city about 100km from Beijing.
“The US wants to reignite the sense of national purpose by establishing China as an imaginary enemy,” Xie said.
America’s “competitive, collaborative and adversarial” rhetoric is an attempt to suppress China; the emphasis is on the adversarial aspect, the collaborative aspect is expediency, and the competitive aspect is a narrative trap, Xie said in a statement shared by the Chinese foreign ministry and official media.
The talks took place in the backdrop of tensions between the two countries over wideranging issues.
Meanwhile, China on Monday announced that the People’s Liberation Army navy will conduct exercises in the disputed South China Sea (SCS).
The drills will be held between Guangdong’s Shangchuan Island and the SCS from July 27-29, reported Taiwan News. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire SCS and has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.