Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded today to a question about the US 2022 National Defense Strategy, which considers China “the most consequential and systemic challenge” to US national security.
“The 2022 NDS plays up major-country competition and deliberately misrepresents China’s foreign and defense policies,” said Zhao. “It is driven ostensibly by a Cold War zero-sum mentality and the logic of domination and hegemonism and says everything about the ill intention of the US to contain and suppress China under various false pretexts.”
“The world is undergoing changes of a magnitude unseen in a century. The historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable,” he continued. “And yet, the hegemonic, high-handed, and bullying acts of using strength to intimidate the weak, taking from others by force and subterfuge, and playing zero-sum games are exerting grave harm.”
