China does not fear confrontation with US: Foreign minister
Wang Yi says issues in bilateral relationship due to Washington's strategic misjudgments
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BEIJING • China would not fear confrontation with the US but would welcome cooperation if it is mutually beneficial, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday.
Problems in the US-China relationship were down to "strategic misjudgments" by the American side, he said in a speech posted on the foreign ministry website.
"If there is confrontation, then (China) will not fear it, and will fight to the finish," he said.
Mr Wang said "there is no harm" in competition but it should be "positive".
Ties between the United States and China are at a low over a range of disagreements, including the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, trade, human rights, and Beijing's increasing pressure on Taiwan.
In a call last month that lasted for more than three hours, US President Joe Biden pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on human rights, while Mr Xi warned that Beijing would respond to what it called provocation on Taiwan.
The US Senate passed legislation last Thursday to ban imports from China's Xinjiang region over concern about forced labour, Washington's latest response to Beijing's treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority there. China rejects accusations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Meanwhile, Mr Wang also said that Taiwan is a "wanderer" that will eventually come home and is not a chess piece to be played with.
Mr Wang reaffirmed Beijing's determination to bring the island under its control.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and has in the past two years stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty claims, to anger in Taipei and deep concern in Washington.
Mr Wang said the cause of current tensions was the Taiwan government's attempts to "rely on the United States for independence" and the US and other countries trying to "use Taiwan to control China".
"It is these perverse actions that have changed the status quo and undermined the peace in the Taiwan Strait, violating the consensus of the international community and the basic norms of international relations," said Mr Wang, a former head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
To respond to this, China had taken "forceful countermeasures" to "shock the arrogance" of those who seek Taiwan's formal independence, he said.
"Taiwan is a wanderer who will eventually come home, not a chess piece to be used by others. China must and will be reunified," he added.
REUTERS
REUNIFICATION IS A MUST
Taiwan is a wanderer who will eventually come home, not a chess piece to be used by others. China must and will be reunified.
CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER WANG YI
