Senior Chinese official welcomes cooperation with US
(Baonghean.vn) - A senior Chinese official said on January 9 that Beijing is not seeking to reshape the global order but is seeking greater cooperation with the United States, the latest move showing that its previous hawkish stance has been discarded.
At an event to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing, Liu Jianchao, member of the Party Central Committee and head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, quoted President Xi Jinping as saying that China "will not launch a Cold War or a hot war with anyone."
“People in Asia have their own way of dealing with each other, valuing peace above all else and seeking peaceful solutions to all disputes,” Liu told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “China does not seek to change the current international order. We are one of the builders of the current world order and have benefited from it. As the world enters a period of turmoil and transformation, people of all countries hope that China and the United States will take the lead in solving more global problems.”
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have deteriorated markedly in recent years, with prominent Chinese diplomats dubbed “wolf warriors” for their confrontational public statements against the US. Asked if there was a change in approach, Liu stressed: “I think the wolf warrior diplomacy has not always been applied, and there is no going back to this strategy.”
Liu’s visit to the United States follows a November summit in California between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden, in which China agreed to address key U.S. concerns, including resuming military dialogue and efforts to tackle the illicit trade in fentanyl precursors, which have fueled an addiction problem in the United States.
US analysts said China's new tone was due to its desire to focus on domestic economic concerns and warned that major differences remained in the bilateral relationship. Chief among them was the issue of Taiwan. Liu was also cautious in his comments on Taiwan, declining to say how China would react to the Taiwanese elections on January 14, but declaring Taiwan a "red line" for Beijing. "We take seriously the US statements that it does not support Taiwan independence and we hope the US side will honor its commitment."
The Biden administration has described Beijing as the top challenge to US hegemony, although the current administration has taken a more cautious approach in terms of public statements than former President Donald Trump, who made opposing China a prominent issue when he ran for the White House again./.
