Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks on the sidelines of the Two Sessions, in Beijing, on March 7.Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
China will not be swayed by U.S. pressure and Washington will be the ultimate loser of any trade war, Beijing’s top diplomat said Friday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would “resolutely counter” any efforts to contain China.
“No country should fantasize that they can suppress China and have a good relationship with China at the same time,” Mr. Wang said, days after the U.S. imposed extra 10-per-cent tariffs on all Chinese imports.
Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated reason for the new measures – Beijing’s supposed failure to stop fentanyl exports to the U.S. – Mr. Wang pointed to years of counter-narcotics co-operation between the two countries.
“The U.S. should not repay kindness with grievances, let alone impose tariffs without reason,” he said, adding the “abuse of fentanyl in the U.S. is a problem that must be confronted and resolved by the U.S. itself.”
Chinese officials have long pointed out that the opioid epidemic is a problem created by and predominantly felt in the U.S., and downplayed the role Chinese chemical exports play in fuelling the illicit manufacture of fentanyl and other drugs.
But Mr. Wang went further in also questioning the value of Mr. Trump’s favourite tool of foreign policy, asking what has the U.S. “achieved from tariffs and trade wars in recent years? Has its trade deficit widened or narrowed? Has its manufacturing become more or less competitive? Has U.S. inflation gone up or down? Has the life of its people got better or worse?”
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Pointing to the recent success of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek despite U.S. efforts to restrict access to top-of-the-line chips, Mr. Wang said “where there is a blockade, there is breakthrough; where there is suppression, there is innovation.”
The news conference by China’s Foreign Minister, held every year at the NPC, is a tightly choreographed affair, with questions screened in advance, and often the order of what is asked and who is called upon can be as revealing as the answers themselves. On Friday, the second question went to a reporter from the Russian news agency Tass, who asked about relations between Beijing and Moscow, amid claims by some in the U.S. that Mr. Trump’s sudden pivot to Russia could enable a “reverse Nixon” and see Washington detach the Kremlin from its closest ally.
Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an apparent attempt to head off such speculation, and Mr. Wang reiterated that the China-Russia relationship “will not be swayed by any external events nor subject to interference by any third party.”
Despite this, there have been some signs of alarm in China at how Beijing, after presenting itself as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine conflict, has been boxed out of talks between Washington and Moscow, along with Europe and Ukraine itself.
On the Chinese internet, there was widespread criticism of Mr. Trump’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with many commenting on a video posted by the U.S. embassy in China of the two men’s recent clash in the Oval Office – criticism that, many noted, was not deleted despite usually tight censorship on sensitive topics like the Ukraine war.
In a commentary this week, the official Xinhua News Agency said the Trump-Zelensky clash showed “Washington’s mask has once again slipped.”
“The abrupt collapse of U.S.-Ukraine talks over the weekend was not mere diplomatic friction,” the unbylined piece read. “Behind the crumbling veneer of etiquette lies Washington’s frustration over its stalled scheme to plunder Ukraine’s natural resources.”
Lu Shaye, China’s special envoy for European affairs, said on Wednesday that he was “appalled” by Washington’s treatment of its Western allies, adding a Ukraine peace deal should not be determined only by the U.S. and Russia.
“When you look at how the Trump administration has implemented a brazen and domineering policy toward Europe, treating its allies in this way, honestly, from a European perspective, it’s quite appalling,” he said, according to the South China Morning Post. “I believe European friends should reflect on this and compare the Trump administration’s policies with those of the Chinese government.”
While Mr. Wang did not go so far, he did call for a “fair and durable peace deal that is binding and acceptable to all the parties involved.”
While Mr. Wang was equanimous about the situation in Ukraine, he had hard words for Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed and threatened by China, where Mr. Trump’s sudden abandonment of Kyiv has caused great alarm in recent weeks.
“Taiwan is not a country, not in the past and not in the future,” he said, adding those seeking Taiwan independence were “doomed to fail.”
He also hit out at the Philippines, which has accused China of maritime aggression as Beijing attempts to increase its territorial foothold in the disputed South China Sea.
“For every move on the sea by the Philippines there is a screenplay written by external forces, the show is live-streamed by Western media and plot is invariably designed to smear China,” Mr. Wang said. “Let me make it clear, infringement and provocation will backfire and those acting as others' chess pieces are bound to be discarded.”
U.S. President Donald Trump's long-threatened tariffs are here, plunging the country into an escalating trade war with China, Canada and Mexico. In response, all three countries announced retaliatory measures.
The Associated Press