Xi Jinping Calls Out US As “Biggest Threat” To China’s Development & Security

China is currently signaling the world that it has mapped out its post-COVID ascent, but crucially it is now openly naming the United States as its biggest global obstacle. 

Though Beijing and Washington now seem to have accepted their ongoing economic and financial rivarly as essentially commonplace across various industries, particularly tech and communications, as well as defense, a recent speech by President Xi Jinping upped the ante further, having as its central theme “the East is rising and the West is declining.”

“The biggest source of chaos in the present-day world is the United States,” Mr. Xi stated ultra-confidently in a speech that was published last week and recently translated. And according to an official cited in The New York Times as having been present at the speech, Xi said, “The United States is the biggest threat to our country’s development and security.”

The NY Times reporting of the speech observed further of its significance:

That warning, echoed in similar recent public comments by senior officers near Mr. Xi, reinforces how he’s looking for to steadiness confidence and warning as China strides forward whereas different international locations proceed to grapple with the pandemic.

His double-sided pronouncements replicate an effort to maintain China on guard as a result of, regardless of its success at dwelling, it faces deep mistrust in Washington and different Western capitals. Although China is rising stronger, Mr. Xi has stated, there are nonetheless some ways by which “the West is strong and the East is weak,” officers have recounted in speeches not too long ago issued on native get together web sites.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday returned the favor, saying that US-China relations will be “biggest geopolitical test” of the century. 

In the major scheduled speech intended to lay out Biden’s strategy to “renew America’s strengths” on the world stage, Blinken said of China that the US will “manage” the relationship “from a position of strength.”

The barrage of Cold War propaganda over the past 5 years has worked: 80% of Americans now unfavorably view China and 77% unfavorably view Russia https://t.co/bfkPJ8J42C

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) March 3, 2021

Blinken said further of China in the much anticipated speech:

“That requires engaging in diplomacy and in international organizations, because where we have pulled back, China has filled in…”

The top U.S. diplomat said Washington would continue to compete, collaborate and be “adversarial,” if necessary, with China, “the only country with the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to seriously challenge the stable and open international system – all the rules, values, and relationships that make the world work the way we want it to.”

There were other parts of the speech where China, though at times unnamed, was on the receiving end of digs such as Blinken’s mentioning “countries stealing our intellectual property.”

“American leadership and engagement matter.”⁰⁰Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlines Biden’s foreign policy priorities in a speech https://t.co/1nja9RBKDp pic.twitter.com/UtjGdorsZ7

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) March 3, 2021

Ultimately, Biden’s Secretary of State assured, the United States will “lead with diplomacy” around the globe to “renew democracy, because it’s under threat.”

“We’re not simply picking up where we left off. We’re looking at the world with fresh eyes,” he added.