China accuses US of devising tactics to suppress China despite improvement in relations

Beijing, March 7

China’s foreign minister accused the US on Thursday of devising tactics to suppress China’s rise and criticised the Biden Administration for adding more Chinese companies to its sanctions lists.

Wang Yi, speaking to media during the annual meeting of China’s legislature, said that relations with the US have improved since President’s Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met in November, but that America has not fulfilled its promises.

“If the US always says one thing and does another, where is its credibility as a major power? If the US gets nervous and anxious when it hears the word ‘China,’ where is its confidence as a major power?” he said. “If the US is obsessed with suppressing China, it will eventually harm itself.” Wang, a 70-year-old veteran diplomat who has earned Xi’s trust, returned to the foreign minister’s post last summer after his successor, Qin Gang, was abruptly dismissed without explanation after a half year on the job.

Analysts had speculated the ruling Communist Party might use the weeklong meeting of the National People’s Congress to name a new foreign minister, but that appeared off the table after an agenda released on the eve of the opening session did not include personnel changes.