US view on China has ‘gone seriously awry’: Chinese foreign min
BEIJING: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that the US view on China has “seriously gone awry” and Beijing will not give in to “blackmail and coercion”, in a sharp retort to his American counterpart Antony Blinken’s remarks identifying China as “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order”.
Addressing an audience at US-based George Washington University on Thursday, Blinken said China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.
He called China “the most serious long-term challenge to the international order”, and the US, while stepping up competition with “invest, align, compete” strategy, will, however, avoid conflict or a new Cold War with the Communist country. While the Chinese foreign ministry hit back by terming Blinken’s observations as a smear campaign by the US, the Wang who is currently touring Pacific countries said Blinken’s speech outlining the US strategy towards China showed the US view on has “gone seriously awry”.
Chinese leaders have pointed out that whether China and the United States can properly handle their relationship matters to the future of the world, and it is a question of the century needed to be well answered by the two countries, Wang said speaking during the visit of Fiji.
Before answering the question, the US side should first be aware that a unipolar hegemony will find no support, group confrontation has no future, building small yards with high fences means self-isolation and backwardness, and decoupling and cutting supplies only hurt others and itself as well, Wang said. “We will never yield to blackmail or coercion, and will firmly defend China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.