China’s Foreign Minister says Beijing will not fear confrontation with US, calls Taiwan ‘a wanderer’

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China does not fear confrontation with the United States but welcomes cooperation if it is mutually beneficial.

In a speech on Monday posted on the Foreign Ministry website, Mr Wang said there was “no harm” in competition between the two nations, but it should be “positive”.

Mr Wang said current problems in the US-China relationship were down to “strategic misjudgments” on the American side.

“If there is confrontation, then [China] will not fear it, and will fight to the finish,” he said.

In a call last month that lasted for more than three hours, US President Joe Biden pressed his counterpart, Xi Jinping, on human rights.

During their virtual summit, Mr Xi warned that China would respond to what it called provocation in relation to Taiwan.

Speaking about Taiwan, Mr Wang reaffirmed Beijing’s determination to bring the island under its control.

He called Taiwan a “wanderer” that would eventually come home and warned it was not a chess piece to be played with.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.

In the past two years, Beijing has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty claims, angering Taipei and causing deep concerns in Washington.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES