China’s foreign minister warned that there could be more conflict with the United States if relations don’t soon change.
Qin Gang, the foreign minister, said at a Tuesday news conference, “If the United States does not hit the brakes but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
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“Who will bear the consequences? Such competition is a reckless gamble,” Qin, who was named to his current position late last year after serving as China’s ambassador to the United States, added.
This isn’t the first time Chinese officials have warned their U.S. counterparts of a possible future conflict if their relationship doesn’t change, but the fractured relationship between the two nations has been exacerbated by China’s continued support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. leaders have revealed that they have intelligence to indicate Beijing is considering providing Moscow with lethal aid for the war, while U.S. leaders have warned that doing so would elicit a significant response. China has helped Russia circumvent Western sanctions and has provided them with non-lethal aid.
“China and Russia have found a path of major country relations featuring strategic trust and good neighborliness, setting a good example for international relations,” Qin said of the Russia-China relationship. “The more unstable the world becomes, the more imperative it is for China and Russia to steadily advance their relations.”
Qin compared China potentially providing weapons to Russia with the U.S.'s decision to arm and aid Taiwan, the island nation that is self-governed despite Beijing's claim that it's a territorial part of China. While the U.S. doesn't recognize Taiwan diplomatically, the U.S. has consistently provided Taiwan with weapons to defend itself in the event of a China invasion.
“Why does the U.S. ask China not to provide weapons to Russia while it keeps selling arms to Taiwan?” he said, adding that China hadn’t provided any weapons to Russia.
A day earlier, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gave a rare direct rebuke of the U.S., saying, “Western countries — led by the U.S. — have implemented all-round containment, encirclement, and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development."
Xi has made it known that he wants the People's Liberation Army, China's military, ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, though U.S. defense officials have said in recent weeks that this isn't a guarantee of military action but a target.
Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary for the Indo-Pacific, said the challenge of deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is “enormous,” though he said last month there’s a chance China won’t invade this decade.
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"The capabilities are growing; the ambition is there. We know that,” he explained. “But what we're doing is reinforcing that deterrence, ensuring that the costs of aggression remain unacceptably high to Beijing. I think we have a pathway to do that through our own development of our own capabilities, revision of our posture, introduction of new operational concepts, and then all of the work we're doing with allies and partners."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that China's actions toward Taiwan have gotten more aggressive in recent months, but he doesn't believe an invasion is imminent.