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China says does not fear confrontation with US, calls Taiwan a 'wanderer'

Monday, 20 December 2021 10:58 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 20 December 2021 11:17 AM ]

Chinese staffers adjust US and Chinese flags before the opening session of Sino-US trade negotiations in Beijing, on February 14, 2019.

China would not shy away from any possible “confrontation” with the US, but would welcome any mutual cooperation that is mutually beneficial, the top Chinese diplomat said Monday.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that “if there is confrontation, then (China) will not fear it, and will fight to the finish.”

The challenges in the Sino-American relations were down to “strategic misjudgments” by the American side, Wang said, adding that “there is no harm” in competition between the superpowers, only if the contest is “positive.”

Speaking on Bejing’s stance toward Chinese Taipei, the foreign minister reaffirmed his government’s resolve to bring the island under its control.

He termed Taiwan a “wanderer” that would eventually come home and warned the US against playing with it like a chess piece.

‘US has no scruples about smearing China by every means’: Beijing

Beijing has said that the United States has “no scruples about smearing China by every means” after Congress passed a bill against the Xinjiang region.

Wang stressed that the US government’s “perverse actions”, such as using Taiwan to control China, “have changed the status quo and undermined the peace in the Taiwan Strait.”

Wang, who was formerly the head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, accused the US of violating basic norms of international relations through its behavior, and to respond to this, China has taken “forceful countermeasures” to “shock the arrogance" of those who seek Taiwan's formal independence.

The development comes on the heels of legislation by the US Senate last week to ban imports from China's Xinjiang region over alleged human right violations.

Beijing was quick enough to hit back at the legislation at the time saying that the US has “no scruples about smearing China by every means.”

The two sides are at odds over a raft of issues, including the self-ruled island of Chinese Taipei, trade tariffs, climate change, global public health, alleged abuses of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

However, China rejects the allegations regarding the Uyghurs situation in Xinjiang.

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