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China’s ‘two sessions’: Li Qiang takes 1 foreign affairs question – on US-China decoupling
- In the traditional press conference at the end of the parliamentary meetings, the Chinese premier makes few comments on diplomacy
- He singles out the destructive economic effects for both sides on Washington’s efforts to decouple from China
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While China’s new premier, Li Qiang, devoted limited time to foreign affairs in his first press conference after taking office, he did single out the destructive economic effects of a decoupling from the United States.
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In the traditional media event on Monday at the close of the “two sessions” parliamentary meetings in Beijing, Li took only one question on foreign affairs – from a reporter from the Dubai-based China Arab TV.
It was a striking contrast to his predecessor Li Keqiang, who usually took multiple foreign policy questions from a range of international media during his two terms of office.
Li Qiang, who begins his term as China’s second most powerful leader at the start of President Xi Jinping’s third term, pointed out that “encirclement” and “suppression” would not benefit the US or China.
Responding to the question on the development of US-China relations amid geopolitical tensions, Li said some people in the US had been “hyping the ‘decoupling’ of the two countries”.
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“But I don’t know how many people can really benefit from this hype,” he said.
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