Update | China denies trying to supplant US role in global affairs
Foreign Minister Wang Yi says two nations should see each other as partners not rivals, amid fears world’s two largest economies are on brink of trade war
China is seeking a more prominent role in global leadership but rejected suggestions that it is trying to supplant the United States in world affairs as “strategic misjudgment”.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday laid out this year’s broad policy agenda of boosting its presence in Africa, the Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and pushing for talks to defuse tensions over the Korean peninsula.
Asked whether China was deviating from its long-standing policy of non-interference in other countries given that Beijing has pushed for peace talks in Myanmar, dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and participated in peacekeeping missions, Wang said Beijing was taking a more proactive approach.
“China will … participate more proactively in reforming and constructing global governance, in resolving regional and international hot issues ... and effectively coping with global challenges together with all parties,” Wang told reporters on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
One way China is taking a bigger role beyond its borders is through the “Belt and Road Initiative”, its strategy to boost infrastructure and trade links from Asia to Africa that critics say is a way for Beijing to expand its influence and power. In September, China will host a cooperation forum with Africa in Beijing, expected to be attended by the leaders of dozens of African nations, with a belt and road theme. At the last such forum held in South Africa in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced investments of US$60 billion in the continent over three years and waived 10 billion yuan (US$1.58 billion) of African debt.
