US must choose between ‘cooperation or conflict’, warns China

The tone is rising again between Beijing and Washington. The Chinese Communist Party’s top official for diplomacy, Wang Yi, told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday (June 19) that the United States had to choose between “cooperation or conflict”. “It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation”Wang Yi added to his interlocutor, according to a report by Chinese public television CCTV.

“Maintaining national unity is always at the heart of China’s fundamental interests” And “on this issue, China will not make any compromises or concessions” about Taiwan, the Chinese diplomat said. China considers Taiwan one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Many disputes

In addition to the very thorny question of the island claimed by Beijing, other subjects strain Sino-American bilateral relations. Among them are technological rivalry, US sanctions targeting Chinese digital giants, trade, the treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority in China and Chinese claims in the South China Sea.

Antony Blinken has been in China since Sunday, the first visit by a US secretary of state to the country since 2018. He had canceled a planned trip in February due to the overflight of the United States by a Chinese spy balloon. The diplomat could meet later with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the conclusion of a visit intended to ease bilateral tensions.