China warns US against suppressing it or risk 'conflict'
The U.S. should change its recent mistaken policies towards China or "conflict and confrontation" will follow, China's foreign minister said on Tuesday, while reiterating Beijing's call for dialogue to end the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
The U.S. has been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than fair or rule-based competition, ForeignMinister Qin Gang told a news conference in Beijing on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting. "The United States' perception and views of China are seriously distorted," Qin said. "It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong." Relations between the two superpowers have been tense for years over a number of issues including Taiwan, trade and war in Ukraine but they worsened after controversy involving a balloon which the U.S. said was a Chinese spying device and shot down last month. The U.S. says it is establishing guardrails for relations with China and is not seeking conflict, but what this means in practice is that China is not supposed to respond with words or actions when slandered or attacked, Qin said. "That is just impossible," he said. "If the United States does not hit the brake, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?"
