China’s top diplomat on Thursday hit out at Washington's "bewildering" trade policy during the much anticipated annual Foreign Minister’s briefing held during the ongoing "two sessions" gathering of China’s rubber stamp legislature.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi charged that the US is "devising various tactics to suppress China" and described that its "lengthening" unilateral anti-Beijing sanctions list is now at "bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity," according to Bloomberg.
China has been pushing and touting high-tech development, but this is amid significant barriers erected by Washington. Wang questioned on trade between the world's two largest economies, "If it gets jittery whenever it hears the word China, where is its confidence as a major country?"
He continued to lash out at the United States by saying, "If it only wants itself to prosper, but denies other countries legitimate development, where is international fairness? If it persistently monopolizes the high end of the value chain and keeps China at the low end, where is fairness and competition?"
The over four hour-long engagement with reporters on a wide array of topics is a rare moment of the year where the foreign ministry can articulate the country’s foreign policy vision directly to reporters.
However, the briefing is typically highly choreographed, and so there's deep significance in the fact that the first foreign reporter to be called upon for a question was a Russian state media journalist.
Wang praised robust Russian trade ties with China, which have increased in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine over two years ago. China-Russia trade reached a historic high of $240 billion, smashing President Xi and Putin's target of $200 billion which had been set in a 2019 agreement.
"Russian natural gas is fueling numerous Chinese households and Chinese-made automobiles are running on Russian roads," Wang in the press conference. "All this shows the strong resilience and broad prospects of China-Russia mutually beneficial cooperation."
"China and Russia have forged a new paradigm of major country relations that differs entirely from the obsolete Cold War approach on the basis of non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party," he emphasized.
On the question of the Ukraine war, Wang once again urged peace talks and called on all parties to avoid "unthinkable" escalation.
China's FM Wang Yi with 4 straightforward questions for the US, in the context of the bill to ban TikTok, the semiconductors sanctions on China, and the multiplication of banned Chinese products in the US (EV cars, port cranes, etc.)pic.twitter.com/CG1CnQSHyT
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"If the US says one…
On the issue of rising tensions in east Asian regional waters, which was just this week on display in the South China Sea with a collision incident between Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard vessels, he warned outside powers (of course primarily meaning the US) to not interfere and avoid provocations.
"In the face of deliberate infringement, we will take justified actions to defend our rights in accordance with the law. In the face of unwarranted provocation, we will respond with prompt and legitimate countermeasures,” Wang asserted. "We also urge certain countries outside the region, not to make provocations, excite or stir up troubles."
