FM calls on US to halt zero-sum games

Washington urged to honor its words and act responsibly on matters pertaining to China

China urged the United States on March 7 to cease its zero-sum competition and geopolitical rivalry with the country, saying Washington should work with Beijing to put bilateral ties back on the right path of sound and stable development, as it has promised.

“China believes that in a globalized and interdependent world, how China and the US find the right way forward and manage to get along is both a new question for humanity and a formulation that must be worked out together by the two countries,” State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said as he took questions from the media via video link on the sidelines of the fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing.

He said it is a pity that the US is not honoring its words of not seeking a new Cold War with China, not seeking to change China’s system or strengthening its alliances against China, and not supporting “Taiwan independence”.

The reality is that the US is going to great lengths to engage in intense, zero-sum competition with China, keeps provoking China on issues concerning its core interests, and is taking a series of actions to piece together small blocs to suppress China, he said.

“This is not how a responsible power should act, or how a credible country does things,” Wang added. He said that China has every right to do what is necessary to firmly defend its legitimate interests.

Wang said that in order to contain China’s development, some forces in the US have instigated and encouraged the development of “Taiwan independence” forces, challenged the one-China principle and seriously undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.

“The scheme to use Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail,” he said, adding that Taiwan’s future and hope lie in the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and reunification with the mainland.

Wang said China and the US need to re-embrace the conviction that helped the two countries break the ice 50 years ago, and set out on a new journey.

We must replace the “competitivecollaborative-adversarial” trichotomy with the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and winwin cooperation, return the China policy of the US to the right track guided by reason and pragmatism, he said.

Speaking of the US “Indo-Pacific strategy”, which he described as “an Indo-Pacific version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”, Wang said the US is stoking geopolitical rivalry in the name of advancing regional cooperation. He said the strategy seeks to maintain the USled system of hegemony, undermine the regional cooperation architecture with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as the center, and compromise the overall and long-term interests of countries in the region.

“Such actions run counter to the common aspiration of the region for peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes, and they are doomed to fail,” he said.

Noting that the Asia-Pacific region is a promising land for cooperation and development instead of a chessboard for a geopolitical contest, Wang said that China resolutely opposes all acts that lead to confrontation and rival camps in the region.

Li Haidong, a professor of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said Beijing judges Washington’s intention of developing relations with China based on what it does instead of what it says, and the US is not taking actions to implement its commitments.

“The US is using a Cold War mentality and the logic of bloc politics to deal with its relationship with China,” Li said.