Wang Yi warns against ‘knee-jerk’ calls for US-China decoupling

MUNICH – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Feb 14 against “knee-jerk” calls for the United States to distance itself from China and said that despite some positive recent signs from the White House, some US voices were undermining the relationship.

Calling for a “positive and pragmatic” policy from Washington, he told the Munich Security Conference the best outcome for both would be cooperation.

Mr Wang met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb 13 in what a US official described as a “positive and constructive” meeting and discussed

a planned visit to Beijing in April

by US President Donald Trump.

After a year of turbulence over trade and tariff policy, the US and China have been looking to smooth relations, and Mr Wang said Beijing had been encouraged by recent remarks from the White House showing “respect for President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people”.

The US and European countries have been increasingly concerned about their growing reliance on China for raw materials and vital parts of their manufacturing supply chains, and there have been widespread calls to reduce their dependence.

Mr Wang said some quarters in the US were “doing everything to attack and smear China”, and there were two possible prospects for bilateral relations.

The US could understand China reasonably and objectively and have a positive and pragmatic policy towards it, he said.

“The other prospect is seeking decoupling from China and severing supply chains and to oppose China on everything in a purely emotional, knee-jerk way,” he said.

He warned that some were “trying to split Taiwan from China and stepping on China’s red lines, which would very much likely push China and the United States to a conflict”.

“China, on our part, wants to see the first prospect, and I believe you share the same way, but China is well prepared to address all kinds of risks,” he said. REUTERS