CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will continue to retaliate against “arbitrary” US tariffs and accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” in a press conference today.
Mr Wang’s wide-ranging comments were made on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China’s 3,000-member National People’s Congress.
He said China’s efforts to help the US contain its fentanyl crisis have been met with punitive tariffs, which are straining ties.
And the foreign minister warned: “No country should fantasise that it can suppress China and maintain a good relationship with China at the same time.
“Such two-faced acts are not good for the stability of bilateral relations or for building mutual trust.”
The US slapped duties against China as well as Canada and Mexico this week over accusations of fentanyl smuggling, which all three countries have called unjustified.
China maintains it has done a lot to curb the exports of industrial chemicals used to make fentanyl over the past few years and suggested illegal drug use in the US is a domestic problem.
The duties were the latest in a series of retaliatory tariffs Washington and Beijing have imposed against one another since US President Donald Trump’s return to office in January.
The US has raised flat tariffs on all Chinese imports to 20 per cent, which Beijing countered by adding 15 per cent duties to US imports including chicken, pork, soy and beef – and expanded controls on doing business with key US companies.
Regarding the Trump administration’s policy of safeguarding US interests above international co-operation, Mr Wang said such an approach, if adopted by every country in the world, would result in the “law of the jungle.”
He said: “Small and weak countries will get burnt first, and the international order and rules will be under severe shock.
“Major countries should undertake their international obligations and not seek to profit from and bully the weak.”
On the Ukraine war, Mr Wang said: “All parties should learn something from the crisis.
“Amongst many other things, security should be mutual and equal and no country should build its security on the insecurity of another.”
And on Taiwan Mr Wang said: “Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country in the future.”
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