Is the United States willing to sabotage China? Chinese leaders think so.
President Xi Jinping this week accused Washington of trying to isolate his country and slow down its development. That reflects the ruling Communist Party’s growing frustration that its quest for global prosperity and influence is threatened by US restrictions on access to technology, its support for Taiwan and other moves Beijing views as hostile.
Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, tries to appear above trouble and generally makes soft and positive public comments. That made his complaint on Monday all the more striking. Xi said a US-led campaign to “contain and suppress” China has “brought severe and unprecedented challenges.” He called on the public to “dare to fight.”
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Qin Gang sharpened the warning, saying Washington faces possible “conflict and confrontation” if it does not change course.
“The foreign minister is speaking on behalf of a widespread view that the United States is going after China and they have to defend themselves,” said John Delury, an international relations specialist at Yonsei University in Seoul.
China is not the only government angered by Washington’s dominance in global economic and strategic affairs. But Chinese leaders see the United States going the extra mile to thwart Beijing as a challenge to regional and possibly global leadership.
The ruling party wants to restore China’s historic role as a political and cultural leader, increase revenue by transforming the country into a technology inventor, and unite what it sees as the Chinese motherland by taking control of Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as part of his territory.
Beijing sees them as positive targets, but American officials see them as threats. They say Chinese development plans are based, at least in part, on stealing or pressuring foreign companies to hand over technology. Some warn that Chinese competition could erode US industrial dominance and income.
Washington has pushed back against Beijing’s plans by placing Chinese companies, including its first global tech brand, Huawei, on a blacklist that limits access to processor chips and other technology. That crippled Huawei’s smartphone brand, once one of the biggest in the world. US officials are pressing European and other allies to avoid Huawei equipment when upgrading phone networks.
Washington cites security fears, but Beijing says it’s an excuse to hurt new competitors.
The two governments have the world’s largest trading relationship and common interests in fighting climate change and other issues. But relations are strained over Taiwan, Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong and its mostly Muslim ethnic minorities, and its refusal to criticize or isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Official Chinese opinion soured after an uptick when Xi met US President Joe Biden in Indonesia in November, said Shi Yinhong, a specialist in international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. He noted that in the five months since, Washington has approved more arms sales to Taiwan, criticized Beijing’s stance on Ukraine and put more Chinese companies on export watch lists, all of which China viewed as hostile.
Xi and Qin spoke “dramatically” this week, but “the gist of what they said is China’s long-term position,” Shi said. The leadership believes that “the United States has almost fully implemented a drastic and desperate containment of China in all aspects, especially in the strategic and military fields.”
“The risk of a military conflict between China and the United States is increasing,” Shi said.
A State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said Washington wants to “coexist responsibly” within the global political and trade system and denied that the US government wants to suppress China.
“This is not about containing China. It is not about suppressing China. This is not about stopping China,” Price said in Washington. “We want to have that constructive competition that is fair” and “that doesn’t stray into that conflict.”
The United States formed a strategic group, the Quad, with Japan, Australia and India in response to concerns about China and its claim to vast stretches of sea that are heavily traveled shipping lanes. They insist that the group does not focus on any particular country, but their official statements are about territorial claims and other issues on which they have disputes with Beijing.
The latest change in tone follows acrimonious exchanges over a Chinese balloon that was shot down after passing over North America. Your electronics and other equipment are being examined by the FBI.
Qin, the foreign minister is “trying to position China as a global force for moderation and peace” in front of foreign audiences and says that “it is the Americans who are blowing things up,” Delury said.
Xi’s government is especially irritated by US and Western lawmakers’ outpourings of support for Taiwan, which seceded from China in 1949 after a civil war.
Taiwan has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, but the Communist Party says the island of 22 million people must join the mainland, by force if necessary.
Washington is bound by federal law to see that Taiwan has the weapons to defend itself and has sold it fighter jets and missiles. Chinese leaders complain that this encourages Taiwanese politicians who might want to resist unification and possibly declare formal independence, a step that Beijing says would lead to war.
Premier Li Keqiang, who will step down as China’s second leader this month, called for “peaceful reunification” on Sunday. But Xi’s government has also stepped up efforts to intimidate the island by flying fighter jets and firing missiles into the nearby sea.
The latest recession is “testament to the real degradation” of US-China relations, which “were never really trusted,” said Drew Thompson, a fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of China. Singapore.
Chinese leaders “regard any kind of discussion on strategic issues as sensitive and off-limits,” leading to “greater risk of miscalculation,” Thompson said.
“They believe that the United States is a hegemon that seeks to undermine the Communist Party and its legitimacy, and they have ample evidence of that,” he said. “But if perceptions and the balance of interests change, they could easily believe that the United States is a partner in achieving the party’s goals.”
