In a rather positive development on the world politics stage, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that his country was ready to work with the United States and is sincere in the efforts to improve relations.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, FM Yi recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “successful” meeting with his American counterpart Joe Biden in November 2023 and underscored that stable and predictable bilateral relations between the two countries will be beneficial for the people of both the countries and the world as well.
Lamenting Washington’s continuing with its wrong perception and “misguided” policy of containment against Beijing, he said, “[The US] has recently continued to woo its so-called allies in an attempt to provoke tensions at sea in the region and build networks to contain China at a faster pace.”
Yi, underscoring unilateral sanctions by US aimed at curtailing China’s advancement in the field of science and technology, called on Washington to let go of the Cold War-driven “zero-sum mentality” and accentuated China’s contribution to cooperation, growth and stability on the global scale.
Responding to a question regarding the upcoming US elections slated to be held in November this year, the foreign minister termed the polls an “internal affairs” of the US and reiterated Beijing’s policy of non-interference.
“Whoever is elected, the Chinese and American people will still need to have exchanges and cooperation, and the two major countries must find the right way to get along with each other,” he said.
Stressing the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, the minister, while referring to the recent telephonic conversation between the presidents of the two countries, said that both countries should value peace and stability.
“China is ready to work with the US to carry out more win-win cooperation,” he noted.
However, on the issue of Taiwan, a point of contention between Beijing and Washington as the latter has time again put its weight behind the Island nation, Yi doubled down on China’s “reunification” stance and termed the island nation an “inseparable part of China”.
“The Taiwan question is entirely China’s internal affair, and how to achieve national reunification is a matter for the Chinese people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” he said, adding that Beijing will not allow anyone to separate Taiwan from China.
“China will ultimately achieve complete reunification, and Taiwan is bound to return to the embrace of the motherland,” he said.
Lambasting the “Taiwan independence separatist activities and external disruptions” as a threat to regional stability, the foreign minister underscored the need to oppose the island nation’s independence.
Without taking any names, the minister lamented the double standards of “some countries” for arming the Taiwan independence separatists on one hand and calling for regional peace and stability on the other.
His remarks come as Washington, a key and arguably Taiwan’s most important and staunchest ally, has been arming it with advanced weaponry over the years — something Beijing is weary of.
In January earlier this year, China sanctioned five US arms manufacturers over the sale of weapons to the self-ruled island.
Furthermore, responding to a question pertaining to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, Yi decried the 100,000 civilian deaths and reiterated the need for a ceasefire.
He also reaffirmed China’s support for the Palestinians including the country’s permanent membership of the United Nations along with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state ruled by the Palestinians themselves.
“The only way to break the vicious cycle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict […] is by truly restoring justice to the Palestinians [and] effectively enforce the two-state solution,” he concluded.
