In a scathing attack on Washington, Chinese Foreign Minister said, US should not cross Taiwan’s ‘red line’
Beijing: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Tuesday hit out at the US for sharply criticizing its foreign policies and accused it of building military blocks in the Indo-Pacific region in an attempt to “control China”, calling Washington a “red line”. Warned against crossing. in Taiwan, and without directly naming the US, said that “an invisible” hand was escalating the war in Ukraine for geopolitical gain.
Strongly defending Beijing’s ties with Moscow, a belligerent Qin said Sino-Russian relations “do not pose a threat to any country in the world, nor will they be interfered with or sowed discord by any third party”. Will go”.
“The more unstable the world becomes, the more important it is for China and Russia to continue to advance their relationship,” he said.
Qin reserved most of his diplomatic salutations to the US.
Qin, who took over as foreign minister late last year, said in his first, “US ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ claims to safeguard regional security, but in reality it provokes confrontation and destroys NATO.” wants to make an Asia-Pacific version.” Press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing two-session, annual parliament meetings of China.
China has been vocal in its criticism of the US Indo-Pacific strategy as well as the Quad grouping comprising the US, India, Japan and Australia, besides frequently targeting AUKUS, which is an Australia-UK-US alliance, saying that their aim was to uplift it.
“Attempts to create special blocs to provoke conflict by plotting an Asia-Pacific version of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) US Indo-Pacific strategy while allegedly upholding freedom and openness to maintain security and prosperity in the region Is. and to undermine regional integration through decoupling and supply chains,” Qin said.
Setting a hostile tone for bilateral relations with the US, Qin said that “conflicts and confrontations” were inevitable if Washington did not change its policies. “If America doesn’t hit the brakes but continues to accelerate down the wrong path, no guardrail can stop the derailment, and there will certainly be conflict and confrontation.”
Relations between the US and China have been embroiled in a range of issues from trade to human rights and transparency on the origins of the coronavirus, which triggered the Covid-19 pandemic, to the recent shooting down of a Chinese balloon by US air. Strength.
ukraine war
Qin continued China’s stance of remaining neutral in the ongoing Ukraine conflict, which Beijing has refused to name as the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country.
He said that China is not the creator of the crisis and neither is it a directly concerned party.
Qin said Beijing has not provided arms to either side in the Ukraine war, in the backdrop of US officials warning China of unspecified “consequences” should it send weapons to Russia. “What has China done for which it has been blamed, or even sanctioned and bullied? This is absolutely unacceptable,” Qin said.
Qin said that it appears that “an invisible hand is pushing to escalate and escalate the conflict and is using the Ukraine crisis to fulfill some geopolitical agenda”.
“What is needed is peace, reason and dialogue,” Qin said, adding that conflict, sanctions and pressure would not solve the problem, according to a report by state-run Xinhua news agency. He said that the process of peace talks should start at the earliest.
Taiwan
“Wrongly handling the Taiwan question will shake the very foundation of China-US relations,” he said.
Qin said, “The Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests, the basis of the political foundation of Sino-US relations, and the first red line that should not be crossed in Sino-US relations.”
Dramatically brandishing a copy of the Chinese constitution, Qin said that Taiwan is China’s internal matter and that China reserves the right to take any necessary steps to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.
Qin questioned Washington’s policies on Ukraine and Taiwan.
“Why does the US talk about respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Ukraine issue, but does not respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity on the Taiwan issue? Why does the US ask China not to give arms to Russia while[it]continues to sell arms to Taiwan? Qin said.
Qin’s comments came amid reports on Tuesday of a possible meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April.
A report in the Financial Times newspaper on Monday said Tsai may meet McCarthy in California rather than Taiwan, as the US speaker had initially indicated.
