Chinese foreign policy chief Wang Yi rebuked the United States on Thursday over what he said were "absurd" efforts to hold China back, warning that the country intended to strengthen ties with Russia in line with its vision for a "multi-polar world." File Photo by Alexandra Baier MSC/UPI |
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March 7 (UPI) -- Chinese foreign policy chief Wang Yi rebuked the United States on Thursday over what he said were absurd efforts to hold China back, warning that the country intended to strengthen ties with Russia in line with its vision for a "multi-polar world."
The "lengthening" list of recent U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies demonstrated "bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity," Wang said at his annual briefing Thursday on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing.
"If it gets jittery whenever it hears the word China, where is its confidence as a major country?" Wang said, accusing the United States of being consumed with suppressing China and reneging on its promises.
"If it only wants itself to prosper, but denies other countries legitimate development, where is international fairness? If it persistently monopolizes the high end of the value chain and keeps China at the low end, where is fairness and competition?"
He said that while the relationship between China and the United States was "critical," the focus in the coming months would be on deepening and strengthening China's partnership with Russia on the back of record levels of trade and warming relations.
Wang, who also serves as foreign minister, attributed two-way trade between the countries hitting $240 billion in 2023 to the "strategic guidance" of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin with Russian natural gas now heating Chinese homes while Chinese-made cars filled Russia's roads.
China's exports to Russia were up 54% in 2023 compared with the previous year, helped by sales of 841,000 vehicles, catapulting Russia to pole position among Chinese automakers' export markets.
China has ramped up its purchases of Russian gas since the exports of the world's second-largest producer, mostly to Europe, took a massive hit from sanctions imposed by the West over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Wang said the days of U.S. dominance over China were gradually being supplanted by a multipolar world, one in which the friendship it has built with Russia in recent years would play a key part.
"The China-Russia relationship moves ahead along the trend of multipolarity," he said.
He did not refer to the "no limits cooperation" joint communique following a bi-lateral summit between Xi and Putin in Beijing in February 2022, only days prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but China has provided significant economic and diplomatic cover to Moscow ever since.
A meeting between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden in November at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Indonesia had helped improve matters, Wang said, pointing to the fact Biden had pledged not to support independence for Taiwan.
