March 13, 2024 (EIRNS)—Chinese Foreign Ministry Press Spokesman Wang Wenbin responded yesterday to a question about the Pentagon’s latest provocation over Taiwan, by taking on the mindset which leads to these now-regular provocations: the United States’ refusal to cooperate on the common development of both countries, and instead being hell-bent on suppressing China.
The latest provocation was the announcement by a senior Pentagon official briefing reporters on March 11 on the 2025 defense budget, that for the first time the administration is funding the transfer of weapons to Taiwan from U.S. military stocks. The administration had hoped to allocate “something closer to $1 billion,” but would make do with asking for $500 million, he said.
Wang Wenbin, asked to comment, replied:
“We have noted relevant reports. We’ve made clear time and again that competition is not the defining feature of China-U.S. relations and that competition between major countries cannot solve the problems facing China and the U.S.. By claiming to `outcompete’ others, what the U.S. refers to is not healthy competition of becoming one’s better self and making progress together, but vicious competition of trying to trip the other and recklessly gamble at the cost of the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity. It will only push the two countries toward confrontation and conflict.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned the U.S. last week that if it remains “obsessed with suppressing China, it will eventually harm itself,” the press spokesman reminded.
Wang Wenbin then added that China “is firmly opposed to U.S.’s military ties with Taiwan and its effort of arming Taiwan,” and “will take steps to firmly uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
