Ministry pans hegemonic US strategy
Declassified Indo-Pacific plan to sabotage peace, stability in region
Areport Washington released on its Indo-Pacific strategy had exposed its malign motives to contain China and sabotage regional peace and stability, Beijing said on Jan 13.
The recently declassified United States Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific, released by the Trump administration on Jan 12, includes accelerating India’s rise as a counterweight to Beijing, the ability to defend Taiwan against an attack, and maintaining US strategic primacy in the region.
The Indo-Pacific strategy aims to maintain US hegemony, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily news conference.
The document has purposefully distorted China’s neighborhood policy and sensationalized the “China threat” theory, Zhao said, adding that it “highlights the Cold War mentality and military confrontation”.
China has made important contributions to regional peace, stability and prosperity, which is obvious to countries in the region, Zhao said, adding that Washington is the real troublemaker and the real force working to sabotage the region’s peace, stability and cooperation.
The document also reveals that the US government has gone against its own pledge on the Taiwan question, he said. China urges the US to fully understand the sensitivity of the Taiwan question and properly handle it and refrain from sending wrong signals to “Taiwan independence” forces, he said.
Beijing hopes Washington will respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and strengthen dialogue with China to properly manage differences, he added.
“We need to ensure that the AsiaPacific region is a stage for China and the US to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation, and it should not become an arena where a zero-sum game plays out,” Zhao said.
China urges the United States to abide by the one-China principle
and provisions of the three ChinaUS joint communiques, stop all official exchanges and military ties with Taiwan, and not to go further down this wrong and dangerous path, the spokesman said.
Earlier on Jan 12, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said all travel of department officials for the week had been canceled, including his final trip abroad to Europe, citing transition to the incoming Joe Biden administration.
Meanwhile, multiple reports said that the cancellation was due to declination
from European officials to meet with the outgoing top US diplomat.
The abrupt cancellations also include US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft’s planned visit to China’s Taiwan.
Craft’s scheduled visit to Taiwan from Jan 13 to 15, announced earlier in a statement by Pompeo, has drawn strong opposition from Beijing.
Michael Swaine, director of East Asia program at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, called Pompeo’s recent moves on Taiwan
“dangerous and reckless”.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying recently said at a daily news briefing that Pompeo’s statement seriously violated the basic norms of international relations, interfered with China’s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty, and violated the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques and that China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.