Miscellaneous News

It is rarely for the Chinese government to explicitly say that the US is engaged in a new cold war. I think things would deteriorate soon. After the Chinese economy stabilized, China could make some strong responses to the US aggression.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign minister blamed the U.S. for rising tensions between Washington and Beijing and said if the U.S. does not change its path there will be "conflict and confrontation".


The U.S. has been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than fair or rule-based competition, Foreign Minister Qin Gang told reporters at a news conference in Beijing on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting.

"The United States' perception and views of China are seriously distorted," Qin said. "It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong."

The U.S. should play by the rules it talks about, Qin said.


"The United States talks a lot about following rules, but imagine two athletes competing in the Olympic race," he said. "If one side, instead of focusing on giving one's best, always tries to trip or even into the other. That is not fair competition, but malicious confrontation and a foul."

The U.S. says it is establishing guardrails for relations with China and is not seeking conflict, but what this means in practice is that China is not supposed to respond with words or actions when slandered or attacked, he said.

"That is just impossible," Qin said.

"If the United States does not hit the brake, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?"

More detailed version, Xi also mentioned the US directly and accused it of waging a full scale containment and suppression.

Xi aims at US
In a rare direct criticism, Chinese President Xi Jinping took aim at the United States in a panel discussion during the annual gathering of the top advisory body on Monday, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Xi said China had been grappling with “comprehensive containment and suppression by Western countries led by the US over the past few years”.

He said it had brought unprecedented and severe challenges for China’s development and the risks facing China in the future would be more severe and common.


Qin Gang:

• Qin says China has not supplied weapons to Russia
• Qin takes aim at the US for a series of global problems. He says there seems to be an “invisible hand” pushing to escalate the crisis in Ukraine; US interest rate rises are triggering debt crises; and the region does not need an Asia-Pacific version of Nato
• The deterioration of China-US relations has to be stopped, he says. If the US does not “hit the brakes, and continues on the wrong path, there will surely be conflict and confrontation”.
• Qin is conciliatory on Europe, saying China will keep supporting “European integration”. He hopes Europe will truly achieve “strategic autonomy” and “long-term security and stability” after the ordeal of the war in Ukraine
• • He talks up China’s ties with Russia, saying they “set a good example for international relations”
  • Hinting at more currency cooperation with Russia, Qin says China will use whatever currency is “efficient, safe and credible”
  • The third belt and road forum will be held this year
  • China and Japan “are close neighbours” and need each other, he says
  • Defending Chinese diplomats, Qin says the idea of “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy is a narrative trap

Qin Gang:
To the US on Taiwan
Qin says the US needs to explain its plan for “the destruction of Taiwan”.
He was referring to comments by Garland Nixon, an American radio programme host, who, quoting a White House insider, said last month that US President Joe Biden had a plan to destroy Taiwan.

“Why can the United States talk about sovereignty and territorial integrity over Ukraine, but does not respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity over Taiwan?”

He asks why the US prevents other countries from supplying weapons to Russia while the US arms Taiwan.
If the Taiwan question cannot be handled well, it will shake the very foundation of China-US relations, Qin says.

Qin blames the US for creating a diplomatic crisis with the spy balloon saga.

He says the US also agreed it was an accident that did not pose a national security threat, but Washington nonetheless violated international law and practices and abused force.

In a fierce attack against the Biden administration’s alliance-focused China strategy, Qin says the US perception of China is seriously distorted.
The US claims of competition with China are meant to contain and suppress China in all respects and push bilateral ties to a zero-sum game.

Belt and Road Initiative
Qin says the third belt and road forum will be held this year.
He says the Belt and Road Initiative is a high-quality and sustainable public project.

And they thought moving Zhao Lijian around and making Qin Gang the FM meant the end of wolf warrior.
Meanwhile Qin Gang today:

Most direct speech I heard so far from China, on this matter, especially from 6:15,

tamsen_ikard said:

And every single move he has been making in the past 2 years have been about making China resilient from western comprehensive attacks. In this NPC, China will be making changes to reorganize the State Council to be just an executive body that only executes but does not make policy, and decision making on many aspects will be moved to the party organs. His whole focus on strengthening party control is about reducing power struggles and enforcing unity so that when huge challenges continue to come from western sanctions and decoupling moves, Chinese state is cohesive and united enough to face them.

His moves to increase control over the tech sector, focusing state power towards improving self-reliance and hardware innovations is also preparing for more US restrictions.

But the big question is, will his moves be implemented fast enough to actually make China resilient. If US attacks keep accelerating then Chinese decoupling from western components and western markets will increase very fast. If China cannot cope with those attacks then its overall development pace could slow down.

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The challenges are plenty, but I'm confident China can deal with most of it.

The only aspect I worry a lot about is demographics. The forces at play there seem beyond most countries' ability to control; and East Asian countries, especially, have not found the way to do it. Look at Japan. Look at South Korea. Basket cases in demographic decline.

If China can solve the demographic problem and go back to a stable or growing fertility rate, I'd say the future is bright regardless of what the US does. China just needs to wait it out, until the forces of history equalize the playing field. But at the current speed of aging, time may in fact be on the US's side. It's very hard to beat the US - which keeps importing young immigrants - if half the country is 65+ and the other half is stuck in service jobs because of it.

solarz said:

From article:

"Regarding the clock as a gift, please rest assured that the President loves it very much because in our culture the word “clock” pronounced as “zhong” also means “zhong xin” (in English “wholehearted, heartfelt and cordial” or “best wholehearted wishes”). So it is no problem at all!"


Just when you thought they couldn't debase themselves any further!

For those who don't speak Chinese, zhong xin means "loyalty".

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Not only that. Send someone a clock as a gift, or 送钟 say in Chinese, sounds the same as 送终, which means “handle the funeral affairs of somebody”. So Chinese people usually do not send anyone a clock as a gift.

Eventine said:

The challenges are plenty, but I'm confident China can deal with most of it.

The only aspect I worry a lot about is demographics. The forces at play there seem beyond most countries' ability to control; and East Asian countries, especially, have not found the way to do it. Look at Japan. Look at South Korea. Basket cases in demographic decline.

If China can solve the demographic problem and go back to a stable or growing fertility rate, I'd say the future is bright regardless of what the US does. China just needs to wait it out, until the forces of history equalize the playing field. But at the current speed of aging, time may in fact be on the US's side. It's very hard to beat the US - which keeps importing young immigrants - if half the country is 65+ and the other half is stuck in service jobs because of it.

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I think if the demography problem becomes such a big issue for China so as to become an impediment to China's rise and power, then CCP will take action to stop it. By force if Necessary. If they could employ a policy like the One Child Policy, then they could also employ tough policies to enforce higher birth by young people. Will it be unpopular? Sure. But CCP has not been shy to make unpopular policies if it was important for national survival.

But this process towards really harsh Pro-Birth policies will be very gradual. At first it will be positive policies like giving benefits for people who have children and reducing burdens and so on. But I don't think such policies will work, since they have never worked in any developed countries. Then CCP will slowly bring out the tough policies like fines, high taxes for childless, social stigma and so on.

The bigger the problem the harder the drive to increase the birth rate will be. The reason that hasn't happened yet is that China with its poverty, unemployment and lower quality school simply has an over population problem now. There is a huge competition going on for everything. Economy and raising peoples incomes and reducing the tech gap is the bigger priority and high population is still a liability with current GDP per Capita level.

When that changes, Chinese Govt policies will also change towards raising birth rate by penalties. Plus there is another big arsenal that will become available as China's becomes rich. That arsenal is called immigration. China is obviously not attractive now for immigrants but it will slowly become more and more attractive as the GDP per Capita rises and people start to see benefits of living in China like better jobs, better housing, education and so on.

Dude you are Chinese made

Eventine said:

The challenges are plenty, but I'm confident China can deal with most of it.

The only aspect I worry a lot about is demographics. The forces at play there seem beyond most countries' ability to control; and East Asian countries, especially, have not found the way to do it. Look at Japan. Look at South Korea. Basket cases in demographic decline.

If China can solve the demographic problem and go back to a stable or growing fertility rate, I'd say the future is bright regardless of what the US does. China just needs to wait it out, until the forces of history equalize the playing field. But at the current speed of aging, time may in fact be on the US's side. It's very hard to beat the US - which keeps importing young immigrants - if half the country is 65+ and the other half is stuck in service jobs because of it.

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I disagree about America, with the decline of government, cultural and educational institutions combined with the massive influx of illegals and unskilled immigrants the quality of the average American is going down fast. Rising crimes, racial tensions and income inequality are a recipe for disaster not for winning. Even most Americans agree that the country is heading in the wrong direction but without major cultural and political reforms it’s impossible to stop the decline.

Sleepyjam said:

I disagree about America, with the decline of government, cultural and educational institutions combined with the massive influx of illegals and unskilled immigrants the quality of the average American is going down fast. Rising crimes, racial tensions and income inequality are a recipe for disaster not for winning.

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Many people dont know this but unlike the never ending China Collapse predictions, its fair to say the USA has about a year or so left, two at the most. 2025 is the year it all falls apart... All China has to do is empty the walmart shelves and in 3 months time America will devolve into civil war, every major city on fire, looting, chaos...black on white, black on black, it will be unstoppable, a Furguson and Rodney king on every street corner of whats left of what used to be America...