Speaking on Aug. 31 at the French Institute of International Relations, China’s Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi didn’t mince words about the threat facing the world. “The China-U.S. relationship is in its most testing time since the establishment of diplomatic relations. It has come to this stage because some hardliners in the U.S. have gone to great lengths to portray China as a major rival. They have resorted to every possible means to suppress China’s development. They have also been stoking ideological confrontation internationally, and publicly coercing countries into choosing sides, trying to drag China-U.S. relations into confrontation and conflict, and hijack other countries onto their chariot of major-country rivalry. These acts are threatening to push the world as we know it to the brink of turmoil and division.”