OAN Deven Berryhill
UPDATED 2:40 PM PT – Tuesday, March 7, 2023
China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang warned Washington about suppressing Beijing over surveillance balloons, Taiwan, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Minister Gang made fiery comments during a news conference on Tuesday exhorting the United States to change its course or face “confrontation and conflict” from Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping made similar remarks on Monday blaming the U.S. for trying to shame China regarding its support of Russia.
“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
During the press conference, Qin questioned President Joe Biden’s assertion that the U.S. seeks “competition with China but not conflict.”
“In fact, the U.S. side’s so-called ‘competition’ is all-round containment and suppression, a zero-sum game,” said the new foreign minister.
Qin further commented that “[conflict] may be unavoidable unless Washington stops trying to suppress Beijing.”
The Chinese Foreign Minister also took the opportunity to call out Washington for shooting down their spy balloons, supporting Taiwan’s autonomy and accusing Beijing for ‘potentially’ providing military weapons to the Russians.
“The U.S. side violated the spirit of international law and international practice by making presumptions of guilt, overreacting, abusing force, and making use of the issue to create a diplomatic crisis that could have been avoided,” said Qin. “China is neither the creator of the crisis nor a party to it, nor has it provided weapons to any party to the [Ukraine] conflict, so why should China be blamed, sanctioned, pressured or even threatened?”