China: Biden’s priorities provide room for cooperation between Beijing and Washington

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: “Three of the four priorities identified by the US president-elect, Joe Biden, will provide spaces for joint cooperation”.

And he stressed, during a hypothetical interview hosted by the “Asia Society”, from its headquarters in the United States, Friday that: “Joint cooperation to confront the epidemic is the most urgent matter at the present time”.

He added that the other two areas in which China and the United States could cooperate are economic recovery and climate change.

Wang revealed that “the current US-China relations are witnessing an unprecedented deterioration, since the establishment of diplomatic relations 41 years ago,” and said that this is not what the two countries need now, especially at a time when international efforts must unite in order to face the difficulties.

The Chinese minister said that the two countries should focus on cooperation, managing differences, and rebuilding trust, through joint dialogue, to achieve peace and international development, noting that the confrontation between the United States and China “will cause a disaster for humanity as a whole”.

He warned of “great damage in international relations,” due to the year 2020, due to arbitrary interference in internal affairs and the use of sanctions.

He pointed out that “economic protection policies will destroy international trade,” and urged joint cooperation between the two countries and with other countries.

“China is pursuing an independent foreign policy, based on five principles of peaceful coexistence (he did not specify), and we have no intention of competing for hegemony,” Wang said.

He stressed that his country seeks to achieve profitable cooperation between it and the rest of the country.

Noting that some countries have made wrong strategic calculations targeting China, Wang said, “China is not and will not be a threat”.

He pointed out that targeting the Chinese Communist Party is an attack on 1.4 billion Chinese, and it is a doomed attempt.

He also expressed his rejection of what he called “an attempt to build an international alliance against China”.

Wang ignored the international criticism that China faces, regarding the human rights violations that occur against the Uyghur Muslims, in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and the Buddhist-controlled Tibetan region, describing them as “false stories”.

He referred to US restrictions on trade, saying, “There are no winners in the trade war, and both sides must remove the barriers they have created”.

It is reported that over the past year, tariffs between Washington and Beijing were raised, as Trump wanted to balance the $ 560 billion trade between the two countries.

The chief Chinese diplomat stressed that China will continue to grow, and called on the United States to “stop the excessive use of the concept of national security”.

On the South China Sea issue, Wang said, “We need to turn differences into joint cooperation, and China will continue to work with other countries to maintain freedom of navigation, in accordance with international law”.

He added that China will speed up cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

“The allegations about China’s influence on the US presidential elections are completely fabricated,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, Thursday, during a press conference, stressing Beijing’s adherence to the “principle of non-interference”.