Chinese ministerwarns of conflict unless U.S. changes current course

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned Tuesday that Beijing andWashington are headed for “conflict and confrontation” if the U.S. doesn’t change course, striking a combative tone at a momentwhen relations between the rivals are at a historic low.

In his first news conference since taking office late last year, Qin’s harsh language appeared to defy predictions that China might abandon its aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy in favor of more moderate rhetoric as the two countries face off over trade and technology, Taiwan, human rights and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Washington’s China policy has “entirely deviated from the rational and sound track,” Qin told journalists on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China’s rubberstamp legislature, when leaders lay out their economic and political priorities for the coming year.

“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” said Qin, whose newposition is junior to the Communist Party’s senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi. “Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity.”

Qin’s comments echoed remarks made by leader Xi Jinping in a speech Monday to legislators.

“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented grave challenges to our nation’s development,” Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

In the face of that, China must “remain calm, maintain concentration, strive for progress while maintaining stability, take active actions, unite as one, and dare to fight,” he said.

U.S. officials have grown increasingly worried about China’s expansive political and economic goals and the possibility of war over Taiwan— and many officials in Washington have called for the U.S. to make a bigger effort to counter Chinese influence abroad.

In recent weeks, concerns about Chinese spying on the U.S. and Beijing’s influence campaigns there have drawn particular concern, and officials from the two countries have frequently traded accusations.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned visit to Beijing after Washington shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over American territory. The massive balloon and its payload, including electronics and optics, have been recovered from the ocean floor and are being analyzed by the FBI.

Then last week, China responded with indignation when U.S. officials raised the issue again of whether the COVID-19 pandemic began with a lab leak. The ForeignMinistry accused the U.S. of “politicizing the issue” in an attempt to discredit China.

And the two countries

have traded angry words over Taiwan as China has stepped up its diplomatic isolation and military harassment of the self-governing island democracy that it claims as its own territory.

Qin — who briefly served as ambassador to Washington and gained a reputation for his cutting condemnations of China’s critics when he was Foreign Ministry spokesman — touched on all these topics on Tuesday.

He criticized Washington for shooting down the balloon, repeating claims that its appearance in U.S. skies was an accident.

“In this case the United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted. It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge,” Qin said.

“This is like the first button in a shirt being put wrong and the result is that the U.S.-China policy has entirely deviated from the rational and sound track.”