China says US talks vital as Trump targets its partners
China’s top diplomat said US-China dialogue is vital to avoid damaging miscalculations globally, ahead of the highly anticipated summit between leaders Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
“Failure to engage between the two countries will only lead to misunderstandings and misjudgments, amounting to conflict and harming the world,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a news conference on the sidelines of the annual parliament meeting in Beijing on Sunday. he said.
While the US president focused on the war he and Israel have waged against Iran, analysts were watching for signs that his visit to meet with Xi would continue.
China had not previously announced the summit between the leaders of the world’s largest economies, which is expected to be held at the end of March.
“The agenda of high-level exchanges with the United States is on the table,” Wang said.
“Both sides need to make comprehensive preparations to create an environment conducive to managing existing differences,” he said, without giving further details. he added.
In addition to a week-long war with Iran that left Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more than 1,300 people dead in the country, Trump tested Beijing’s commitment to its strategic partners by authorizing the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, according to Tehran.
On Iran, Wang called for an immediate halt to military operations, saying war should not happen and the use of force is not a way to solve problems.
Despite reports that Tehran was nearing an agreement to purchase supersonic anti-ship missiles from Beijing, he did not go beyond Beijing’s previous condemnations and expressions of concern.
Trump’s pursuit of the “Donroe Doctrine” (Washington’s rebranding of a 19th-century policy asserting its sphere of influence in the Americas) impinges on Xi’s flagship Belt and Road and Global Security initiatives, which have been decades in the making and have generated significant personal political investments for the Chinese leader.
Trump also threatened military action against Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba’s communist regime “looks ready to fall on its own,” raising questions about how Latin American countries can protect their China ties if they are put to the test.
China’s foreign policy hasn’t faced this much scrutiny since the Cold War, said Yasser Nasser, a historian at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
“In some ways, this is existential in that it reveals that China’s economic commitments or its commitments to arms deals do not mean directly confronting the United States or preventing interventions, such as during the Vietnam War.”
Wang appeared to have dealt a blow to Trump’s foreign policy goals.
“If China, like some traditional great powers, were willing to carve out spheres of influence in its own neighborhood, fuel bloc conflict, and even shift problems to its neighbors, would Asia still be as stable as it is today?” Wang said.
He did not name the USA.
Analysts say Beijing has become more aggressive in its backyard over the past year.
It has staged major war games around Taiwan, escalated a diplomatic dispute with Japan over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments that a Chinese attack on the democratically governed island could trigger a military response from Tokyo, and repeatedly confronted Philippine ships in disputed parts of the South China Sea.
Still, Wang sought to portray China’s economy as a stabilizing force, contrary to Trump’s military assertion.
“A hard punch is not the same as a hard reason,” he said.
“The world cannot return to the laws of the jungle. Resorting to force at every opportunity does not prove one’s strength.”
